is there a trick to pulling injectors?

[gloucester Q]

title says it all... i ended up taking the fuel rails off the car thinking i'd have an easier time of it, but man, those things are really stuck in there. i ended up tapping the 2 ones that are totally shot out with a rubber mallet, but i'm disinclined to do it on the remaining ones that are still within spec but going to get replaced anyway due to age and while-i'm-under-here-might-as-well-do-it. thanks.

[HeavyDuty]

They can be a pain. I've had some success with grabbing the top & rotating it back & forth while pulling outwards. You also might try dribbling in a little motor oil around the edge between the rail & the injector. Lastly, if you're replacing them anyway, a teeny, tiny, pic can be used to pry them out.

[gloucester Q]

well, i guess it's comforting to hear that there's no easy way--that i wasn't totally overlooking something. i noticed that the top of the injector has 2 little holes in the plastic perpendicular to the axis of the injector--i thought they looked like holes for some kind of fixture that might be used to pry it up. ah well, i'll give the oil a try, and as it turns out, i'm replacing all of them, so i dont need to be overly cautious. thanks again.

[carlos_knology]

Soak them with Liquid Wrench.

Check this out. I know you have a Q but this document mentions how hard it is to pull some if not all injectors on the J30. Liquid Wrench does the trick.

http://www.fuzzycats.com/docs/...t.pdf

Carlos

[DAEDALUS]

They won't feel right going back in either. The problem is I don't think there's any easy way to know before you start the car if you've pinched a seal.

[fxjackso]

I second that. I just replaced #8. It ran great for an hour then was hard to start. Took it out and sure,enough, chewed up the o-ring. What a drag if it was under the plenum.

The good news is they are easy to remove when they have only been in for an hour...........

[Alan]

Daedalus warned me to be careful, and use some lube. I bought some "syl-glide" at NAPA (suggested by a very experienced tech). Seemed to work well, at least I didn't have any problems.

To get back to removal, IIRC I was able to get the injector up enough to gently pry it up from the o ring groove. I think I used an offset screwdriver for a pry bar.

Good luck, Alan

[DAEDALUS]

The problem is I don't think there's any easy way to know before you start the car if you've pinched a seal.

I take it back. I forgot about the rail leak down test with a fuel pressure gauge. Easy enough method, only takes 20 minutes or so as long as you have the fuel pump working.

[911/Q45]

If you've got the rails on the bench, you can push from the bottom and pull from the top and it works better. I've used Vaseline on the o rings with good results on reassembly.