Date:         Sat, 16 Aug 97 12:13:37 CDT
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Joel Walker <JWALKER@ua1vm.ua.edu>
Subject:      Re: The proper gas line

On Sat, 16 Aug 1997 Eric Miskow said:
>On start ups I noticed drops of liquid as I backed out of the drive way.  A
>little exploring led to a drip in the gas line as it enters the plastic male
>part right in back of the firewall leading to the fuel injection ect, ect.
>Anyway, I went to my VW parts store and they said the gas line was 7mm, I
>said that mine was a plastic 3mm line shoved into two 7mm rubber lines that
>exit the fuel filter and the other part described above with hose clamps to
>keep the plastic lines tight against the the rubber ones. The rubber 7mm
>lines are only a few inches long exiting the fuel filter and the male section
>at the firewall.  I was thinking of replacing the entire length with 7mm
>nylon/cloth (what ever that material is)  coated line such as on my old duel
>port engines have for thier gas lines. Then I woulden't have to have those

i don't think that's a good idea at all!!! the old carb hose is NOT able to
withstand the 45 psi of the fuel pump on the 86 injection!! you MUST replace
it with INJECTION-RATED fuel hose (which has a reinforcement inside the hose)
... trust me: if you use carb hose, the hose will balloon up and explode!!!

the rubber hose is what's leaking (at least it was on my 88). i'd suggest
just replacing the rubber parts with injection-rated hose and new clamps.
it's a bitch to get to that particular hose (and it's mate on the opposite
side of the transmission), but if you jack up the bus and remove the rear
wheel, you can get in there a little easier.

>plastic line does fit nicely around the rear wheel well in the plastic guides
>so maybe it is original.  Any thoughts? Is this the right way?  Are plastic
>lines a stock item?

the plastic line is indeed original. and shouldn't be the part leaking. i'd
bet the rubber hose is the leaker.

also: the rubber hose between the fuel tank and the fuel pump (or in your
case, the fuel strainer/filter) was a bit larger ... 10mm ... on my 88. but
that was the only stretch of hose that was NOT 7mm.

if ONE hose is leaking, the others will be leaking soon. so better to replace
them all now. a word of caution when replacing the hoses on the engine:
even after several hours, the fuel in those engine hoses is still under
pressure, so be prepared (with rags and NO SMOKING and such) for fuel
spraying all over the place when you start removing the clamps and hoses!!

and make sure you get ALL the rags out of the engine compartment before you
start the bus!! one of them rags will get sucked into a v-belt if you don't
... did you know a rag can make a v-belt jump off the pulley?? :)

joel