AU ute fuel pump replacement process

[vapour_nudge]

What an easy job. No joke

My ute has 590,000km on the clock and was having hard start problems. I knew it was fuel as it would start easier if I switched the ignition to the on position three times and then tried to start it. I had already replaced the in-line fuel filter under the car

So, the easy way to do this - and I mean easy - is to remove the tub.
Steps are below:

I removed the plastic liner first by removing the bolts along the inner sides of the tray and then removed the Philips screws at the rear. The whole plastic liner comes out easy - I removed it on my own.

Then to remove the tub, first undo the plastic Philips head scrivet screw that connects the mudflaps to the chassis rail. There's one on each side and you access them from behind the rear wheels. Don'tr bother removing the other scrivets as the mudflaps can stay connected to the tub. You can buy new "Champion" scrivets from car part shops.

Next, lower the tailgate and unscrew the tail lights (two small bolts which can be seen with the tailgate lowered). Just push and pop the lights out (might need to give them a tap) Twist the cables out from the lights.

Next, there is a connector for the reverse light which you can disconnect just below where the Philips head screws were for the plastic tray. Disconnect that too.

Remove the 8 bolts holding the tray to the chassis rail. That's it.

Get someone to help you lift the well body tub (you only need two people) and then lift it up and back and rest it on the tyres. That gives you plenty of room to access the top of the fuel tank from behind the cab to remove the fuel sender/pump assembly.

This whole process took me 45 minutes

Note: to get the fuel lines off easy, twist them 90 degrees and then squeeze and pull them off. I replaced the whole sender and fuel pump assembly as one unit (I also replaced the seal). I also siphoned the fuel out and cleaned the tank out with a rag. The access hole is large enough to get your lower arm and elbow inside. Surprisingly, my tank had no gunk or muck in it and was very clean but the pump sock and filter were filthy. The fuel I had siphoned was very clean.
After doing this my car starts immediately on the first crank. Hopefully I will get plenty more kms from it
I have some photos if needed

[Uncle_Ken]

yes please

[vapour_nudge]

OK. As requested I have uploaded the photos.

The tipper photo is how we positioned the tray once it was unbolted. In this photo I have circled in green roughly where the plastic scrivet is connected to the chassis.

The tray view photo shows how the tray looks while it is positioned on the tyres when the plastic liner is removed. I have circled in green about where the connector is for the reversing light. I have circled in red where to find the bolts to release the tail lights

The easy access photo shows the access you have to the fuel sender. I can't stress how easy this work was to do. It took 45 minutes to get the tray off and I'd never done it before

I also posted a photo where the sender was removed to give an idea of the size of the hole and the access you have. I could get my elbow past the the opening and really cleaned out the inside of the tank but it turned out to be very clean anyway. Make sure you use a torch to check it, I don't recommend using a match or a lighter

When I installed the new sender with the new pump and seal, I initially left the fuel lines off after re-connecting the electric connector just to be sure the pump worked. It really chucked out the fuel.

[Bill M]

Good stuff! Thanks for sharing. What brand of pump/Sender did you use?
cheers
Bill

[vapour_nudge]

Hi Bill.
My ute is a base model August 2000 AUII model with the petrol 4.0l i6.
I bought a GOSS GE175 sender and pump kit from a company called "Engine Parts" including a new seal.