Date:         Thu, 10 Aug 2000 13:27:41 -0400
Reply-To:     "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@ReliTech.com>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         "Carrington, Tom" <TCarrington@ReliTech.com>
Subject:      FW: [Syncro] dropping gas tank
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Please reply to Dave, not me!

-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Bayer [mailto:daveb@cp.net]
Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 6:07 AM
To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: [Fwd: [Syncro] dropping gas tank]



Today I had the pleasure of dropping the gas tank
in my syncro. Since I had so much fun doing it, I
thought I'd write up a little note to help others
thru it.

First, my engine and tranny were out. I don't know
how one would drop the tank with the engine in as
mine came out down and toward the back of the van.
I had pressure washed the tank, the engine compartment
and a good portion of the underside of the van
(including the wheel wells) before I started this
project. However there was still a ton of sand and
road grime everywhere when it came to the tank and
fuel pump.

I started off by removing the fuel pump, labeling
the wires, wire/nylon brushing as much of the dirt
off at possible (a 'detail' brush would have been more
helpful) and dremeling the crimp style fuel hose
clamps. The aftpump hose can be plugged with an 8mm
bolt (with 13mm head), the prepump hose is a bit
larger and I didn't have a suitable plug for it
besides the fuel pump (the check valve in the pump
appears to actually take some pressure to open). I
drained the aft hose first (there is a good amount of
fuel in there) in my gas can. A funnel would have been
helpful here as gas sprayed a good bit. The forehose
was worse, gas flows more readily than water it appears.
Also, a jerry can of a large enough size to do this in
one go is essential. With the van on jack stands I had
a continous drip of gas and a good amount in the tank.
A plug for this hose is essential. The pump should go
into a plastic bag to keep the ends clean.

Removing the filler pipe required removing the right
rear shock. It's held in by one screw to the frame
and the hose clamp to a filler hose that runs up to
the cap. Removing two screws in the plastic around
the filler cap revealed two more screws holding the
filler hose in place. With a little pulling, this hose
comes up nicely. The pipe can then be pulled to the rear
of the van (so that the pipe follows the hose into the
metal tube behind the wheel) and then out. Watch this part
as there will undoubtably be a lot of sand/slit built up
in this area which you do not want to brush into the
pipe, hose or tank.

The coolant pipes are rumored by the Bentley to be in the
way. The coolant distributor and coolant pipes are held
in place by two worm clamps - the coolant distributor is
held in place by one in the engine compartment, the pipes
by one o the forward edge of the frame crossmember. Also
the heater coolant line on the left side of the van needs
to be moved out of the way.

The clutch slave cylinder and the two tranny vent lines
should be moved aside (placed aside). As should the diff
lockvent lines. Oh, you'll need to undo the plastic strap
on the left tank strap before you can do that (it's easily
removed, just light the tab and the plastic strap portion
came right out).

The straps came off easily though I more or less had to
use an imapct wrench on the two forward bolts. The charcoal
canister is easily removed from the driver side wheel well;
it's held in place with a large worm clamp and the two
large hoses pull right off while the smaller one required
a little more force (was held on by a crimp hose clamp that
I couldn't get to with the stout wire cutters. I probably
could have dremeled it but I was worried about fumes. This
clamp might have been good to cut before removing the fuel
pump). One of the hoses transverses the back side of the
van to the right forward corner of the engine compartment
and hooks in to a black plastic circular thing to which the
vaccum lines attach. This should be removed as well.

Back to the left (driver) side wheel well. Remove the
fuel guage sender wire. Try to detach the return fuel
hose at this stage as well. It will make getting the
sender past the frame rail a bit easier. Also, one might
consider trying to detach the wire clamp that holds the
thick cable that runs from the battery to the starter
along the right frame rail if possible. I noticed that
the cable appeared to be cutting the amount of clearance
the tank had...

There is a hose that runs down from the filler hole to
the right top of the tank. It should be visible from the
right wheel well. If you are not going to replace this
hose, try to get at it now (not sure if you can). You
should probably also remove the plastic tie holding the
main wiring harness where it comes out of the left front
sheet metal and pull the wires down and to the right to
provide as much clearance with the sheet metal as possible.

Ok, now the fun. You will probably need a 3-4 foot bar and a
smaller 1 foot bar for this upcoming back - actually removing
the tank. The tank drops down and back on the left side of
the van (this will be obvious when you look at the tank).
There are a network of vent lines that run along the top of
tank - these include:
        - two grey plastic blocks that protect the fuel lines
          from being pinched when you raise the tank. They
          effectively leave a 1/2 - 1 inch space between the
          top of the tank and the sheet metal above.
        - two plastic vent nipples along about 3 inches from
          the rear of the tank and a few inches in the side
        - a bunch of hoses
So I would insert the 4 foot bar on the forward side of the
spring perch in the wheel well with the end of the bar on
the sheet metal above and the tank on the middle of the bar
and gently push down. The tank should move pretty easily if
I haven't missed anything I did. Soon it will jam. I needed
to crawl under and pull it forward then crawl and use the bar
a couple more times.

Once the tank comes down a bit, the fuel supply line can
be removed if you want.

Eventually you will probably get jammed on the bolts for the
fuel guage sender. This is where the 1 foot bar comes into
play (in my case a 1/2 inch rachet driver). I inserted this
along the frame rail and between the tank and used it to
push the sender in just enough to get the bolt to clear.
Repeat for each bolt followed at times with a push from the
4 foot bar (sometime in here I moved the bar to the engine
compartment and inserted it where the tank straps came down).

Once the sender clears, the tank comes out without too much
more fuss, though I do remember thinking that it was not going
to clear the half axles. Also after the sender clears and you've
dropped it another couple inches, the hose that runs up to the
filler will be nicely accessible.

Finally, drain the tank. This was alot of fun because the tank
is bulkly and I couldn't seem to find a spot were I could hold
the tank and see where I was pouring the gas out the hose end
(the ones that went to the fuel pump). My fuel gauge sender
was covered in dirt as was the rest of the tank...

I'm assuming replacing the tank will be more or less just
the reverse. Overall that job took me about 3-4 hours (I
intermixed a little bit of other work I needed to do as
well). Hope I didn't miss anything in that write up.

dave

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