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Date:         Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:55:07 -0400
Reply-To:     Scott Chapman <scott_list@MISCHKO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Scott Chapman <scott_list@MISCHKO.COM>
Subject:      Procedure on my 85 Westy tank reseal
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

Buy the two grommets for the top of the expansion tank as well as the replacment kit. I found in mine that those two grommets were rather shot and the rest of the grommets were in good shape.

Buy clamps. Everyone says, "This is low pressure - don't need clamps." The originals had clamps. You will need two sizes because the crossover pipe is bigger than the rest. I got two clamps for the crossover hoses at the local store. Everything else mail ordered as below.

Old style clamps are used all around. Cut them with strong end cutters. Wire cutters won't work.

I ordered from airheadparts.com:

2 x N90100501 - Grommet, Fuel Expansion Tank @ $5.50

20 x N245281 - Clamp, 5mm (Carb) Fuel Hose @ $0.92

From van-cafe.com:

Fuel Tank Reseal Kit A 251.201.KIT.A 1 $109.50 $109.50

(I also ordered parts to upgrade fuel filter and hose up to the engine. If you do this, don't get the stupid expensive fitting for the firewall. Just run the hose on through or zip-tie it below its original hole.)

There is one part that didn't come in the reseal kit that should have. There's a hose from the fuel tank fill down to the tank and the fitting that goes into the tank is plastic. That plastic piece wasn't included in the kits. Not a biggie as mine was fine and reusable.

Put the front of the rig on jacks stands. Set the brake.

Removing the front wheels gives you more room to work around in there. I got by ok removing the passengers side only. Put towel over wheel/brake assembly.

Disconnect negative lead at battery.

Drain the fuel out of the tank by disconnecting the fuel line that feeds the fuel pump then the return line. I didn't disconnect these from the tank itself, but from the next fitting up the line. This is one little section I didn't replace on mine. It's also easier to direct the draining into the bucket. Drill bits make good temporary plugs for these hoses when you're done draining. If you remove at the tank then you have to come up with some way to cap them which is more challenging.

Drain into a 5-gallon plastic bucket (be careful not to do anything with that plastic bucket that will make a static spark). Use a funnel and pour from 5-gallon bucket to a proper gas can and seal it up.

Figure out that the front hoses to the expansion tanks go to the front on the tank, etc. You need to put them back the same. I cut the fuel line going to the expansion tanks using a razor knife because I had new stuff to replace them with. The front hoses on each side, I cut close to the tanks (not close enough to cut the plastic fittings from the tank so about an inch and a half). The back ones on each side I cut a couple inches further from the overflow tanks. This way it's easy to tell which go where later when you're sizing new ones, etc.

Pulling the overflow tanks. The way these are held in is rather interesting. Why there are even there is rather unknown to me. There's one bolt. You remove it and pull out and down on the BACK of the tank, not the front where the bolt is. You will see how they are held into the wheel well. Take a putty knife and clean all the accumulated road crud out of those and off the tank. Don't pull down too far on the tanks. There's a hose at the top. Don't remove the hose from the plastic. Remove the plastic from the tank. Wear latex gloves (I do for all mywork). The rubber will likely be deteriorated and sticky.

You can replace the grommets and put those right back in place after removing the remaining hoses off the bottom after u cut 'em:

Disconnect hoses to the expansion tanks. (Keep the pieces as you'll need them to get the right length when cutting new hoses.) Two hoses go to the bottom of each of these. Where they attach to the tanks the fittings are easy to bust off. Pull hoses off STRAIGHT! It is fairly easy to remove the hoses. Putting them back on is where you break things as they are mounted in the van and easy to go sideways on as you're pushing. Put vaseline on the plastic fittings to make things slide easier and be very careful putting the host back on or you'll "have stress". (I like to avoid stress). I broke one of mine and it was just far enough down the fitting that I simply continued putting the host on and clamped it.

Ignore the other hose up by the expansion tanks.

Fuel fill pipe. The Bently tells you to remove the clamp on the inside here. There wasn't any, and it won't come apart there. I had to unscrew the 3 screws that hold it in place under the gas cap. One of them was very difficult to get out. ' Had to push HARD and turn CAREFULLY. Eventually it cooperated. I replaced them with sheet metal screws with bolt heads so I can use a socket to remove them in the future. Remove the vent line from this assembly AT THE TANK, not up near the fill spout. It is not technically needed to remove the fill spout assembly to remove the tank because you can make the tank drop toward the pasenger side and thus pull the fill tube out of the tank as you drop it. It's very tricky to re-install the tank using this procedure. I don't recommend it. I removed my spout completely, took a wire wheel and removed all the rust/crud on the thing (tank side and fill side) and applied some black spray paint (masking the surface where the gas cap goes with masking tape). Very pretty when done. Even if there was a clamp and I could disconnect the filler from the tube, I'd do it this way, I think.

The vent lines to the overflow tanks are now removed and the fill spout. There's the bigger vent line that goes across the tank. Reach into the wheel wells and pull them up. They will pop out fairly easily. Leave that hose with fittings hanging there. It's attached to the floor of the van and you can't remove it yet because the tanks in the way to unscrew that.

The only thing left attached is the fuel sending wire. You get that after you lower the tank part way.

Pulling the tank:

The tank is on two metal rails that go fore and aft. They have bolts at the front and are curved down at the back, which goes into a slot on the cross member. When I lowered mine, I found that I hadn't jacked up the van far enough to get the curved portion to clear the slots. So I took a pair of channel locks and bent the curves to where they'd clear. Whew!

You should be able to lower the front of the rails to the ground and leave the back up in the slots. The tank won't drop much at all like this. Take a flashlight with you and you get under the tank with your head to the back of the van and your knees under the middle of the tank. It's easy to hold it up with your knees. Then you remove the rails and move them out of the way while holding the tank. Push forward on the tank so the front stays on the lip up there and lower the back gently. You'll see the sending unit wire on the left up in there. Reach up in and pull that wire out. Then you can lower the tank with your knees and roll out from under it. Remember that there's an opening on the pasenger side where the fill spout goes in so roll out on that side. That way the hole stays high and you don't wear any gasoline.

Note carefully where the crossover hose is routed above and below things. It should not go ABOVE all the junk going fore and aft. Some of that junks is too high up and will cause the new fittings to not go back into the tank nicely when you replace later. Remove it. The new one has a longer hose and isn't hose clamped. Put hose clamps on the new one. Longer hose is no problem, though you may decide not to clamp it to the floor when you replace it.

Snip all the old clamps on the tank except the two that run fuel lines in/out the back (I didn't replace these as mine were fine). YMMV. Replace all the existing hose, grommets, and clamps. Put vaseline on the inside diameter of all the grommets including the one the fill spout goes into. Just a light layer. You don't want it going on into the tank and your fuel system.

Clean around the fuel sending cap and remove it by twisting counter clockwise a bit. Replace seal. I took a 1/2 inch cold chisel and carefully scraped the rubber off the tank and put the new seal on. Don't forget vaseline on top or it'll be very hard to twist back on.

Note on hoses to the overflow tanks. There are two different diameter hoses on the original. The smaller diameter hoses have little clips in that hold them up in the wheel well. I replace all the hose with a single piece and zip-tied them to the other hose up there which holds them fine.

I added an inch or so on all my hoses. Probably wasn't necessary. I'll never know. :)

Put the crossover hose in place above the tank, remembering it's route. Use the upper clamp to the floor of the van if you want to (I didn't). Put the tank back in the way you got it out and reconnect the fuel sending line as you raise the tank. ' Trick is to keep it up on the front cross member while you work with it but not difficult. Have the two rails handy and put them back but leave the front hanging down. The tank will sit there until you get to the front and tighten up the bolts.

Push the hose fittings into the top of the tank grommets. The crossover hose goes in the hole toward the back on the passenger side. They should go quite easily if you put on vaseline. Fuel filler spout goes into the tank then reattached to the side of the van with new sheet metal screws. Breather hose from filler hose goes back into top of tank in the hole in front of the hole the crossover line goes in. Re-use plastic fitting on this one.

Re-attach hoses out the back of the tank.

Reconnect negative terminal.

Put some gas back in the tank and start it up.

Off jack stands.

Go fill it up all the way and see if it leaks any more!

Happy trails,

Scott '85 Westy - not named yet.


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