The hex on the screen is thin. Look at the end of your socket where it will fit over the nut and you will see a champer that needs to be removed (faced in a lathe) for it to fit up on the nut. I just cleaned two of these screens so I modified the overall length of the socket and turned the upper portion so that a pipe wrench would bite it better. It was TIGHT and difficult and will dump a lot of diesel on you for your troubles. The next one that I do will have the car up on its side and the fuel sending unit removed so that I can pump more of the fuel out.
It will run better after the screen is cleaned. My screen was cloged with a substance like mud with sand but the rest of the tank looked clean.
Robert

Attached Thumbnails

 

Take the return line from under the hood and route it into a five gallon container.

Start engine.

Go back inside house for a cup of coffee.

Return to vehicle.

Turn off ignition (engine is not running due to lack of fuel).

Perform tank screen removal.



.............credit to Kerry for the solution.

pleiades
If you want to send it to me with return postage I will cut it down for you. Most sockets are HARD but will cut with carbide. Send me a PM


Brian Carlton
Won't do it. You will still take a diesel bath. The filter plugs up from the bottom and is is solid leaving as much as three inched of fuel that will not come out of the line. I have had a pump sucking on the line for several hours and when I removed the pump a small trickle would return out of the line. Try it and you will see what is going on.

Look at the picture that I attached earlier.
Robert

Agreed..........if the screen is that bad..........you need to disconnect the return line, quickly attach a short hose, and run it into a five gallon container.

Just use a 4" hand grinder to gnaw off the small chamfer on the socket...
Harbor freight about 20 bucks...go slow and you wont overheat the socket...
You could chuck the socket in a drill with a proper necked down extension and grind away...
Sort of a bad, bailout-economy, po-boy milling machine....

__________________
1978 Yellow 300D (The Mustard Toad)
1980 Blue 240D (The Iron Toad)
1989 Grey Mitsu.4WD Mighty Max Pickup (Needs a Diesel transplant bad)

(Open the pod bay doors HAL)

I guess that you could do it that way if you want but then again why not just use a chisel to drift it loose?

I removed one with a pair of slip joint Knipex plumbing pliers at a Pull-a-part...took a real diesel bath on that one...
Just a thought on the socket chamfer removal with a grinder....
I had to do that with a 30MM socket to get an electric hot water heater element out...
They have that thin hex area also....

__________________
1978 Yellow 300D (The Mustard Toad)
1980 Blue 240D (The Iron Toad)
1989 Grey Mitsu.4WD Mighty Max Pickup (Needs a Diesel transplant bad)

(Open the pod bay doors HAL)