Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002 12:07:05 -0400
Reply-To: Jeff Strickrott <jstric01@CS.FIU.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Strickrott <jstric01@CS.FIU.EDU>
Subject: Re: gas filler neck leak
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Hi David:
> OK. mine does fit between the left to right cross members. The front
> lip of my tank sits on the lip of the front crossmember and the back of
> my tank doesnt really sit on anything, it is held in place by the 2 tank
> brackets that slide into slits in the back cross member.
I will see if I can take some pictures of mine from underneath and send them to you tonight. Both the front and rear lips on mine sit inside the cross members. Not hitting at all. The only part of the tank that comes in contact with the frame is the lip on the sides of the tank (left/right).To install my
tank I had to first slide the front of the tank over the lip of the forward cross member, then sideways to allow the metal vent tube (going to the fuel filler tube) to clear (go above) the right frame member.
I am wondering if what is keeping your tank from going all the way up is the plastic vent tube assembly. On my vehicle, the old vent tube went between the metal body of the floor, and the heater vent assembly. To put the new plastic vent tube in, I had to disassembly part of the vent assembly to get the
tube in place. If the PO was lazy, maybe they just left it underneath and thus could not push the tank all the way up to keep from crushing this assembly.
Of course using the plastic vent tube assembly, trying to connect the metal vent tube, balancing everything and getting the tank in place (for one person) was a real pain. So on my third attempt I modified my vent assembly such that I could hook everything up when the tank was on the ground. That meant I
have a longer vent tubes than stock, but so far no problem.
> You mention rubber shims. The only rubber that I have on
> mine are small dome-shaped rubber "bumpers" about the diameter of a
> quarter that are mounted on the tank brackets, fitting between the
> brackets and the tank when it sits on the brackets. Is there something
> else rubber I should have?
>
Regarding the shims, I have 6 rectangular shims, about 1/8 in thickness, that go between the tank and the frame. Nothing was attached to the braces that hold the tank in place. Just metal to metal contact. The tolerance was so tight, that I am not sure that I could have placed any shims between the two.
Were these rubber bumpers added by the PO?
>
> I'm not talking about a
> small drip of a gas leak, it literally runs out.
I have been their, my old seal was loose enough that whenever I sloshed the gas around it would leak. I did a test on the new system, with water in the bathtub to prove to myself that the new system would not leak. As long as the fuel filler tube went straight through the grommet, then no leaks. Torque
it to one side or the other and you can develop leaks. I wonder if all cars have such a cheesy seal.
I went and got some sealer (never used) that appeared to be tar based and gasoline proof (from Autozone) that I thought I would use to improve the fuel seal. But as I had so much fun installing the tank, I figured trying to put a seal around the fuel filler neck was out of the question.
One thing I did do before installing all the metal was to paint them with a rubberized truck bed liner (though I think if I had to do it again I would use metal primer and plasti dip). I wanted a tough finish for the tank and to protect the fuel filler tube from rocks. One benefit of this is that the
fuel filler tube is about 1/2 mm larger in diameter than stock, thus making a better seal with the grommet. I made sure that the paint I used did not dissolve in gas (at least not for the 1 day test I did). We will see what happens over the next couple of years.
I hope that this helps.
