Date:         Tue, 3 May 1994 16:41:06 -0500 (CDT)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Dean Paul Karpowicz <chinaski@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>
Subject:      Re: Gas spillage & other oddities

snip

>liquid spilling onto the ground.  Looking under the van I saw gas dripping 
>off the far side of the gas tank.  The bottom of the tank was dry, as the 
>gas was obviously coming from the top of the tank and running off.  I would 

snip

>Is this a common experience?

Yes (for me anyway)

>My only guess is that the gas was coming from a breather vent at the top
>of the tank, but shouldn't that have some sort of a float valve to prevent
>this type of thing from happening?

It doesn't !!

>By the way, my first tank of mixed driving yielded 17.8 mpg.  I was hoping
>to get closer to 20.
>
>
>-- 
>Jerry Huff		huff@dg-rtp.dg.com		(919)248-6277
>Data General		Unix Software Development	 RTP, NC 27709
>

I also have an '84 wasserboxer.  My fuel gauge is also flakey when at the
bottom of the tank.  I run out at around 1/4 tank on the gauge!!!  This has
happened for many years, so it's not a new occurance.

The gas leakage thing also happened to mine after about a year of non-use.
The gas tank has a gazillion (really about 16) vent hoses on the top of it.
I think that this is due to the inverted saddlebag looking gas tank.  There
are TWO plastic expansion tanks (one under each weelwell) with two hoses to
each, and there are two crossover pipes from one hump to the other.  The
problem lies in that there are sections of rigid hose between two pieces of
flex (rubber) hose and there everywhere down there. 

BOTTOM LINE:  One or more of the rubber hoses has cracked and is leaking.  I
disconnected everything (VW uses those lovely hose clamps that you have to
cut off!!!) and lowered the tank and replaced all of the rubber line and all
of the hose clamps with new ones.  You will have to drive around till the
tank is almost empty again otherwise it'll wiegh a TON!!!

While you are down there you might want to address a corrosion (external)
problem with Vanagon tanks.  I just cleaned to bare metal and sprayed with
Rust-Oleum and then undercoating before re-installing.

Have fun, while you're at it you might as well buy tons of hose clamps and
replace the 15 or so in the engine compartment (along with the lines) I did.

Hank