Date:         Sun, 27 Oct 2002 22:46:27 -0500
Reply-To:     Dana Showers <dshowers@CPDS.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dana Showers <dshowers@CPDS.NET>
Subject:      Re: gas overflow
In-Reply-To:  <3DBCA6D4.AE682548@adelphia.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Marc,

I have one of those famous 1985 Vanagons that pukes gas.  I also found
my van leaking on the driver's side, right behind the front tire.  I
took my van to the mechanic to fix my rotten gas lines which was the
problem.  The good news is that it should only leak while the tank is
full.  The bad news is that (guessing) it probably won't fix the puke
problem.

I found one of the emails on this thread very insightful.  Here is the
advice from gary hradek [hradek@YAHOO.COM]...

"
              After redoing my crossover pipe and crows nest of hoses to
the tank I "never" top off.  Those two crummy little side plastic tanks
look much better without any gas in them. Any backwashing is likely to
be caused by the valves in those plastic tanks not working right or
someone has rehosed and not connected the hoses right(hoses are
asymetric from
side to side).   The valves on the plastic tanks get gummed up.   You
might be able to add some solvent to
get them working but they are likely to be good and brittle with age.
"

I have yet to check my plastic tanks.  I doubt my VW specialist mechanic
would have screwed up the asymmetric thing, but I will check that as
well.

Dana
85 Westy - still puking
dshowers@cpds.net


-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Marc Perdue
Sent: Sunday, October 27, 2002 9:54 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: gas overflow


Okay, I'm a little slow responding, but this thread is directly relevant
to me, so I had to respond after sifting through the incredible volume
of email that you all generate (at a high Signal-to-Noise Ratio I might
add).  I've been off of the list for about a year and my Westy's been
running mostly fine during that time.  On October 13th, something
changed that caused me to sign back up and this thread has pretty much
hit the nail on the head for me.  Let me give you all some background
though.

I bought my '87 Westy about three years ago.  All of the time that I've
owned it, I found that if I depended on the auto-shutoff valve on gas
pumps, the tank would overflow, out of the fill pipe.  So I got in the
habit of listening carefully and slowing the flow right before the tank
filled up.  I was pretty much able to eliminate the backwash, but the
inside of my van always smelled strongly of gas for a day or so after
filling up.  I was curious as to the cause, but I didn't worry about it
too much.  On October 13th, I was filling up in a particularly noisy gas
station.  I had slowed the flow down, but didn't hear anything so I
increased the flow.  Unfortunately, it was just about full and
overflowed just after I sped up the flow.  Anyway, I was standing around
waiting for my girls to "refresh themselves" when I noticed that there
was gas dripping under the driver's side of the van, just behind the
front tire.  So, I signed onto the Vanagon list to find out what was
wrong.  The day I signed on, the first real email I got was one in this
thread.  Talk about timing!

So, after reading all the replies and about all the possible things that
could cause this problem, I have a couple of questions:  Is there any
one of these particular parts that is more likely to cause the symptoms
that I'm seeing?  Or is the bottom line that, if one of them is bad and
you have to go to the trouble of taking the gas tank out, you should go
ahead and replace all the parts in Ken's kit?

Thanks,
Marc Perdue

Aristotle Sagan wrote:

> Well,
> I 'spect it can be done blind, but dropping the tank isn't that hard.
>
> You have a large plastic tube with spiked endpieces that fit into
> rubber grommets on top of the tank. Those grommets can be split, the
> tube can be split, the spiked endpieces can be cracked and broken. The

> plastic tube goes over the center chassis rail on the van while the
> tank sits below the rail. B-yuck.
>
> There are then the small 7mm tubes that go to the expansion tanks.
> Hard to remember how they attach but that part can be broken also. The

> tubes can crack too.
>
> Then there is the vapor line running up to the fill spout. It goes in
> through a metal pipe welded in the top of the tank. That line could
> have split.
>
> And finally, there is the large filler tube that goes outside that you

> put the gas station hose into. It has a large rubber gasket  that can
> be leaking.
>
> Lots of points of leakage. The best bet is to replace all the rubber
> parts and the crossover pipe assembly. I think Ken has a kit all made
> up for this.
>
> tim in san jose
>
> >Hi guys,
> >
> >Searched the archives about a gos overflow problem (spilling across
> >the whole back side of the tank when I filled up tonight) and learned

> >that it is likely that the grommets have to be replaced, and that it
> >a job that needs to be done "blind" if I'm not gonna drop the tank.
> >Can someone tell me what
> >I am looking at (no pun intended)?  Do the expansion tank hoses
simply
> >insert into the grommets, or over a nipple on the grommets, or what?
How
> >many grommets are there that I should replace?
> >
> >I don't have a Bently (asked for one for Christmas), and the repair
> >manual I do have doesn't discuss the tank at all.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >
> >deb
> >'85 Westy "Gypsy"
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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