Date:         Thu, 11 Sep 2003 08:38:08 -0700
Reply-To:     laurasdog@WEIRDSTUFFWEMAKE.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Steve Delanty <laurasdog@WEIRDSTUFFWEMAKE.COM>
Subject:      No leaky, no smelly, gauge worky, me happy!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

Well, I finally fixed 2 (more) problems that have been buggin'
  me since I got the Westy....

The gas gauge has been bogus since I got the thing. When it
read about 1/4 tank, it really meant "Start walkin' Jack, you're
outta gas.."
Also, if I filled the tank up all the way it would drip a little gas,
and even if it wasn't full it stank of gas a little bit most of the time.
Very obnoxious...

I finally couldn't stand it anymore and ordered a new gas gauge
sender and a gas tank "grommet and hose kit".

I ran the bus as nearly out of gas as I dared, then connected a
bit of fuel line to the output of the fuel pump, hot-wired the pump
on, and pumped the last 2 gallons or so into a gas can.

I disconnected all the hoses and crap and pulled the tank out
to clean it. It was pretty obvious from the "trails of clean"
on the outside of the tank that the major leak was coming from
around the fuel gauge sender.

The inside of the tank looked real good. I hosed a small amount
of rust flakes out of it, but the inside of the tank didn't look rusty.
After a day of baking in the hot sun, the tank was dry inside and
ready to reassemble.  I wiped the rubber grommets with a little
bit of soapy water before I installed them and they popped right
in to place.

An examination of the old fuel gauge sender revealed that the
mechanism worked just fine but the arm was *way* bent and
when it was at about the 1/4 full position, the sender float
was actually laying on the bottom of the tank. I have to wonder
how THAT happened. I can only assume that someone has
been in here before and screwed it up.
Anyway, I bent the arm on the old sender to match the new
sender, installed the new sender, and now I've got a spare...

Next step was to get the new hoses to the expansion tanks
cut and installed and then time to put the tank back in.

When I took the tank out, I dropped the front end first. It was
a royal PITA to get my arm up in there and get the hose fittings
popped out of the grommets.

When I reinstalled it I put the front end up first. A big stack of
blocks held it up in place, and the back end was tipped down
enough that I could not only get my arm in place to push the
fittings into the grommets, but I could actually SEE what I
was doing too. MUCH easier!

Once it was all done I went to the gas station and filled the
tank just as full as I could get it. No leaks, no nasty smell.
Verrry nice!   (-:
It'a also quite nice to have a meaningful gas gauge.....

It was a job I dreaded doing for quite a while, but it wasn't
really all that bad and it's so *very* nice to not have the smell
of gas all the time around the van. Yippee, another thing
fixed. Now, what's next..?

Steve
EJ22 -> '86 Westy "Escape Pod"