Roger,

I had a bad fill valve on our trip from PA to AZ right after we
bought the '85 Westy.

Vanagon listee Karl Wolz in Phoenix helped me run around RV dealers
and propane dealers for the better part of a day to find a the fill
valve.  Ultimately, we settled on a non-auto-shutoff file valve and a
manual 80% valve.

Just in case you're not familiar with propane tanks, the tanks are
never filled to 100% liquid.  To allow for expansion, the tanks are
filled to 80% liquid.  The tank has a take-off tube at the 80% level
that will close an auto-shutoff valve thus not allowing over filling.
  I'm not sure what the typical failure mode of the fill valves is,
but I'll bet that the auto-shutoff feature has something to do with
it.

Anyway, we found no such auto-shutoff valve for sale and went with a
Sheridan manual fill valve (I don't know the model #, but it's
basically the one that 2ill fit in the threads of the tank and has
the same exterior thread as the VW valve) for about $40 and a manual
80% bleeder valve with knurled tip at an RV store for about $2.

Installation for the base job was simple, except that we decided to
add an elbow and extender on the 80% valve.  That is, the 80% hole is
in a place that's not easy to reach, especially for a U-Haul propane
filler that's not familiar with it.  So the idea was to extend the
pipe to move the actual valve just past the rock shield.

One other point of interest is that no RV dealer was willing to
install a manual fill valve.  All new installations apparently have
to be auto-shutoffs.  Thus, if you go this route, be aware that
you'll be doing the work yourself.

Anyway, I won't bore you with the details except that I spent the
next year chasing and fixing fitting leaks.  The problem with finding
such leaks is, of course, that you can only find them by filling the
tank.  Then you have to wait until the tank is empty until you can
take stuff apart and fix it.

Incidentally, about a year after I put in the fill valve, the
regulator blew out catastrophically.  That was VERY exciting since
raw high-pressure propane was dumping into the passenger compartment.
 Nobody was hurt and no additional equipment was damanged. Yeah, you
can lecture me on having to have the external valve shut while
driving.  Like many folks, I run my fridge on propane while on the
road so I don't lose cooling every time I stop the van.  The only
other lesson here is that you can't get the original regulator any
more, but the replacement model will work with some tubing changes.

Sorry for writing a book.  :-o

-Karl

Karl & Kristina Bloss - Hurricane, WV
'85 Westfalia Camper "Fred"
'87 Westy Weekender "Bev" For Sale: http://members.citynet.net/bloss/vw/
Almost Heaven West Virgina VW Club:  http://wvvw.org/
"Bound to cover just a little more ground..."