Just thought I'd share this with you guys.I just got this car a month ago and it was running perfect until I ran low on gas.Figured the pump took a dump.I got some quotes in the $1000 range from the dealer for pump and dropping the rearend and gas tank,but saw you can do it from cutting a whole in the trunk grom this site.If any of you try removing a fuel pump from cutting a whole in the trunk,learn from my experience.Okay,I got the instructions from Joe Spena's web site which were pretty straight forward except you cant get the damn thing out with a whole like that I did this job with my very patient dad in my apt garge with limited tools and we had to cut a huge L shape instead of the square to get at those fittings.Also,my car is convertible and its much harder to go in there and cut at the right angle with a dremel tool with out a hatch. We used a cordless charger and after stopping counless times because of a dead battery, ate up wheels,(went through about 20 of them)cleaning up the areae as best as we could so wheel dust wouldnt get in the gas tank while we tried to get the pump out(which i'm sure some did)and atleast 4 trips to the auto parts store it took us a whole weekend and Monday.I also put a new window motor inbetween cutting and also got tied up with that,Plus I could not get the back fitting off the line no matter what,so we had to cut the line and put some hose and clamps over it.Also,when we finally did get the pump out, there was a plug that comes from the sending unit into the fuel pump that was burnt to a crisp Murphys law was truly in effect and whatever could go wrong did as that damn plug is not made at auto parts store or even a dealer item as you have to buy the whole sending unit Anyway Monday morning came around(my dad stayed at my apt from friday night to help me)we searched a few junk yards and a guy had a whole pump and unit off a 94 Z for $75 and of course would not sell just the stupid plug so I had to buy the whole thing.Well I didnt want to take a chance with that pump,and if we cut the line on that unit and the pump didnt work I would be SOL and wouldnt be able to bring it back,so we took that plug off and spliced it(it would come off clean)to the new delclo pump I just paid $160 for. Well after everything was finally done I started it up(it started right up)and the damn hose on the line came off and squirted gas right in my eye We tightened it back up and double clamped it and so far so good.We have done all the work on all my cars(see sig) over the past ten yearrs except transmission and This was by by far the most annoyingist.(bent pushrod and removing intake manifold on my 94 Z,plugs wires opti and water pump on my 95 T/A werent half as bad.)To put salt on my wounds,if I had the car towed to my dads house in orlando(I was going to have AAA tow the 100 mile trip)I would have had the luxury of many more tools,an extension cord and he had a fuel pump sending unit off our 88 vette in the garage which come to find out when he went home has the same plug but I had no idea it would have been the nightmare that it was.

 

I feel your pain man, nothing is easy on these cars.
And Murphy's law is always in effect, especially when you're working on a car.
I'm gonna have to do the whole cut the hole in the trunk deal soon too, my fuel pump is acting strange (as is most of the rest of the car).
Working on these cars is definitely not like working on my old 74 Caddy.

 

It must be a real pain to do this on a vert.
I did the mod on my 94 and it has made my life much easier, glad I did it.
Alot of guys on here don,t like it but I have not had any probs with cutting the hole and now I can do a fuel pump change in less than an hour.

 

Hey droptop thank you very much for taking the time to post your experience. I helped a friend with his pump about 2 years ago and we cut the access hole. This was on a coupe. I think the entire job took a little over an hour, not long at all. During the entire job I wondered if it would be as easy for my convert if I had to change my fuel pump. Guess not.

Did you have the same problem with the support bracket as Arctic did?

Could you guys try to be more specific regarding trouble spots? It appears that you two are the pioneers for the fuel pump hole on the converts.

Thanks for your time to both of you.

 

Where is this write up on the web? And did you do anything to patch the hole you made?

 

I dropped it all (not the axle) with it on jackstands. I did it in a little over 2 hours and i had never done it before. Didn't have to cut a thing. I did bend the fuel neck thing, but it bent back just as easy. I had air tools though. I was worried about cutting stuff doing the access panel, plus i didnt really want a hole back there. It works great by the way (racetronix kit). -Michael

 

This may be a silly question, but couldnt that many sparks around a gas tank=

 

There really won't be any sparks if you use the dremel at a really low speed. That's what I did, and I didn't have a problem.

 

I did the access hole on mine, which is a t-top car, and it was relatively easy. I cut the hole with tin snips and had the old pump out all in less than an hour. I made a nice patch for it out of some heavy gauge steel to cover the hole and sealed it wtih RTV and some stubby zip screws. I would imagine that the procedure is different for convertable cars with the different design back there, it sounds like the best thing to do on them would be to drop the tank. The piece that you cut through on hard top/t-top cars is not a reinforced structural part, just a thin piece of sheetmetal. I would not have done it on mine if it required cutting through a heavy support bracket like that.

 

Well after everything was finally done I started it up(it started right up)and the damn hose on the line came off and squirted gas right in my eye


LOL....thats funny, hopefully no long-term damage

 

I used a pair of air shears to cut out the panel in my coupe. I carefully drilled four pilot holes and then cut the panel out. The only problem was that the freakin' directions I got off the web for cutting the hole were much too conservative. I had to enalrge the hole to allow the pump hoses to be disconnected, enabling me to remove the assembly from the tank. The air shears don't spark and they leave a nice smooth edge.

Its not a bad project in the coupe. The only thing that went wrong was that I upended the old pump after I removed it, spilling gas all over the back seat.

 

I wish I would have known that before
I should have gotten some input from this board before I attempted it but there was no "caution for convertibles"signs on the site with the instructions.I'm still just a little leery about that presssure line with the hose on it(I keep looking over my shoulder and smelling for gas everytime I drive this thing now Do you guys think I should have any problems with it coming off with the LT1's high pressure?I havent covered the area yet other then the insulation and carpet.

Artic,how did you wind up getting that line off anyway,as like I said,I tried and tried with my fingers and a flathead and couldn't do it with no leverage and the top in the way.

 

Is there any way you could post a photo of the hole you had to cut in your convertible. You said it is L shaped but how big is the leg on the L. I have seen posts that say this is difficult to do on a convertible but have seen others that indicated it was not much different than on a coupe. What year is your car? Is it possible that some years are easier than others? I have several types of cutting tools available to use and if it is just a matter of making a slightly larger hole that will not discourage me. I have seen several people mention using a dremel tool. Compared to a good set of air shears, nibblers or cut off tools the dremel would take much longer. Cutting 3-4 feet with a set of air shears would take less than 5 minutes.. The same cutting with a dremel would take hours.