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
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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.