Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2010 19:58:31 -0700
Reply-To: neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: neil n <musomuso@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: those plastic breather thingys under the front wheel-wells
In-Reply-To: <643494.42038.qm@web180005.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 5:38 PM, steve <nuts4photos@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> sorry i've just been a Westy, sorry again, Vanagon owner since like May - but back to the question - Those plastic things - are they just held in there by the one screw that I can see from under? Because i don't want to pull on it and break something - they seem to becoming loose the more i play with - but i'll wait until i hear from the masters -
> THANKS!
Pretty sure the tanks are NLA, so play nice with them. :)
I worked on mine again just last week. I don't recall exactly how I
removed them, but I installed the DS tank by slipping tang over stud,
then pushing tank up at rear to seat protruding part into the body
recess. It's easy to pinch the black hose. Make sure it's not behind
the protruding bit when installing tank. Passenger side seemed a
little trickier.
On mine the lower lip on each rubber gasket are gonzo. The gaskets
were hodge podged in place by the PO with some kind of permanently
flexible goo. I redid them with this stuff: http://tinyurl.com/d62ddr
which seemed similar but not *that* secure. Especially since the
repair I had made to reconnect the black nylon hose to each valve,
(fuel hose + cable straps) ended up "pushing" down on the valve nipple
when tanks installed. (not much room between nipple on valve and body)
Pretty sure this skewed the gasket slightly off the top of one of the
tanks. Luckily there was enough length on the black hose left that I
could slip it over the valve nipple. Anyhow....
Tried RTV, Goo, but 5 minute "Steel" epoxy worked best to hold the
remains of one gasket to the tank. The other one seemed to hold fine
with RTV silicone but time will tell. Of course after going to that
trouble, I found out that van-cafe.com (and BD + GW?) sells a
replacement gasket. Seems VC also sells the rollover valve.
My rubber gasket fix is not the right way, but is holding the rubber
gasket to tank and valve seats tight to each. Still. If yours are
shot, buy new ones.
If you have to remove the valve from each tank, do so with care. The
nipple is easy to break off. They are a fairly tight fit. A little
lube is a must when pushing valve back in.
Neil.
--
Neil Nicholson '81 VanaJetta 2.0 "Jaco"
http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/vanagons-with-vw-inline-4-cylinder-gas-engines
