Change fuel filter

Why is it that most mechanics, tyre shops and some users over tighten bolts, filters and about anything that can be tightened. I assume it’s purely to cover their ass and get you out the door. It once took me half a day to get an oil filter off after a ‘genuine service’ by a brand name manufacturer. You watch at tyre shop, they sit with the rattle-gun on each wheel nut for maybe 5 seconds each!No person using tools included in the car would be able to get the nuts off on the side of the road. Ridiculously one day, I had to apply about 2M of leverage on EVERY wheel nut after the tyres were replaced at a tyre shop. Amazing levels of overkill seen as the car comes with a bar about a foot long! Surely the manufacturer would specify a torque that could be undone by on-board tools!

If you ask “mate, can you put those on by hand because I need to be able to get them off in the bush?” they are usually so obliging and understanding and do it perfectly… and whadya know, the wheel’s still don’t fly off.

This fuel filter was the same. It was on so tight that rather than lightly compressing the O-ring to make a seal, it was no doubt flattened resulting in a metal to metal connection. It was impossible to move. Initially I thought I just couldn’t get a good grip on it… but after purchasing and using vice grips to remove it, I’m convinced I couldn’t have applied that much force even if it was in an ideal location. I agree, the logical conclusion of all this is I must be a weak-ass.

Before and after pictures. I may adjust it a little tighter, but I’ll be reasonable!

On a side note, what is the bit of gear to the left of the fuel filter? Is it another filter?

So, we captured some video of the start after changing the filter. I deliberately didn’t prime the system as I wanted to see it run dry and need to be re-primed from dry. The purpose was to show Cassie how to prime it, and what to expect. I sound all clever and authoritative but having never done this before, I was learning as well! It ran for maybe 30 seconds till it eventually died. We primed the pump (maybe 30 presses?) and  it restarted after maybe 5 seconds of cranking and about %25 throttle. All good we thought – exercise complete. We expected it to be fine after it was running but was indeed not. No matter how much throttle was applied, it wouldn’t get over 1000RPM. Smooth as, but no more revs.
It felt like in a petrol car how when it’s out of fuel it’ll rev, but no power is attainable. Like that, but in the diesel, it was just like it didn’t have enough power to rev any more.

When you pumped the primer, (in combination with throttle) it would rev up straight away, like it was starved of fuel. Between a combination of maybe 25% throttle and priming the pump by hand it seemed to be running better, but still un-drivable.
So what do you do when you have something that is un-drivable? You drive it! We packed up and set off. 1st gear was rubbish and out of power wondering how we would make it up the small slope at the end of our street (let alone cross the traffic).

By the time we were half way down the street into second gear, on came the rest of the power. Back to normal! We drove around for about 10 minutes with no noticeable problems. Woo Hoo! Must have been an airlock?
It’s all learning as we now know what that feels like and how to fix it.