Okay guys, can someone help me out here please.

The Oil Separator, is it located on the back of the valve cover (closest to the cabin) on the passenger side? I pulled off a hose and discovered a small aluminum nipple/sleeve with a cap on top that has a very small hole in the center. If the oil separator is inside there, I cannot get the cap off to save my life, it is too smooth and pliers, needle nose or otherwise just won't grip on the lip. I tried to put something into the hole at the top to pry it open, but the hook bottomed out about 1/8" inside the hole. Is this where the oil separator is located? am I even in the right place? I definitely can't see anything sticking up out of the hole, and nothing that looks like that little black plastic spiral baffle thing. how the hell do I get this open? any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

 

I'm no expert at this, but I changed mine out several months ago. Sounds like you are in the right place. My separator actually stuck out of the hole a bit, so I figured I could pull it out with some needle nose pliers. Wrong. It promptly broke about flush with the opening. Sounds like maybe yours is already broken, perhaps by previous owner.

Are you familiar with what the separator looks like? I assume you already bought a replacement (I've never heard of anyone getting the old one out in one piece, in my admittedly limited experience). At any rate, if you have one on hand, you'll notice that the edges of the rings have flattened spots at various intervals. It's possible to take a thin piece of rigid wire (I can't remember what I finally got my hands on - tried coat hanger but it's too thick), fashion a tiny hook, feel your way around the periphery, get underneath the first "ring" in the separator, and pull it out. I managed to get an additional portion out, but there was still some wedged down in the hole. At this point, I drilled a very tiny hole through the center of the broken portion, and used my hook through the center. Finally came out. I satisfied myself that I got everything out by comparing broken pieces with the new part. Biggest risk here is some loose debris, but I don't think it's a big problem, should it occur.

The RAVE manual probably makes this sound like a 5 minute evolution, but I think these separators, likely never replaced by most original owners, are brittle and practically cemented into place. PITA.

Good luck, hope this helps.

DRW

 

And there is always spray carb cleaner down thru it to flush out the sludge.

 

Take your needle nose pliers and try turning it from side to side as you pull up on it.

 

You are correct, that is the oil seperator. '03 and '04 used a different style, not the black,plastic spiral one like my '98 has.

As far as how to remove/clean it??? I tried once to on my '04, no go. But since it is working fine, I left well enough alone.

 

So people know what we're talking about:

 

so does this part come out?