Date:         Mon, 5 Aug 1996 18:02:49 -0500
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         "Mark E. White" <mewhite@mindspring.com>
Subject:      If you own a breadloaf..READ THIS!

Hey Listers

I almost lost my bus this weekend...before this happens to you..read this.
The bus you save may be your own.

The wife and I drove up to the Great Smokies over the weekend and had a
great time.  Hit the Bug Jam in Knoxville, then down to enjoy the National
Park.  We filled up with gas in Townsend, TN (down in a valley).  Then
headed into Cades Cove.  As I expected, the place was over run with tourist
and just plain crowded. So we decided to dump out of the cove via Rich
Mountain Road.  A one way dirt road that goes out of the cove, over rich
mountain, and back into Townsend.  A great drive with an awesome overlook
that nobody goes to.  

When we got to the overlook, we stopped to admire the view and eat some
boiled peanuts and chill for awhile.  My wife, said the three deadly words
while we were sitting there. "I SMELL GAS"  My first thought jumped to the
recent threads on the gas tank filler neck leak.  I opened the engine
compartment preparing to pry off the pie pan to have a look when I noticed
that the auxiliary battery was soaked with gas!  DANGER WILL ROBBINSON!   I
also noticed a stream of gas coming down from behind the spare tire well.  
My first thought...PANIC!  Then rationality set in.  Vent lines!  Oh No! 
Quickly
putting my limited knowledge of fluid dynamics to work I rationalized that
the fuel tank must be highly pressurized forcing fluid into the overflow
lines.  Quickly, I went to the gas cap and twisted it off.  It literally
flew off of the van!  That stopped the leak. 

But now, what to do?  To keep the pressure from building up, I removed the
gasket from the gas cap and put it back on..Ok...short term fix.  At least
I'll be able to drive it without the fear of a high level of volatile
liquids in the engine compartment.  Whew.  Today when I got home from work,
I ran to the garage to investigate further.  Since you can't see anything
up behind the spare tire well, I started to feel for possible cracks in the
vent line.  Towards the front (front is front) of the vent line there is a
small 2 inch piece of fuel line that is not shown in the Bentley's for
Breadloafs.  If you try hard, you can reach it.
I pulled mine out and it was all cracked up. Plan to go to the FLAPS
tomorrow for a replacement.

If you own a breadloaf, run, don't walk, to your bus and check this item. 
It almost cost me my bus, my life and a large chunk of an international
biosphere.  

VERY happy to pass this along.  Save the loafs! 

Mark White
'74 VW Westy (AKA Gretchen)
http://www.mindspring.com/~mewhite/