I recall once having the same issue with a Beetle. Turns out at the tip of
the metal arm that the float for the level sensor is a little rubber bumper
that hits the top of the tank when full. That little rubber piece fell off
and from time to time would find it's way to the outlet and block flow.
When I got the tank out, it too was clean as a whistle inside, but rolling
the tank around I could hear something inside. Shaking and turning a bunch
and it finally fell out of the large hole for the level sensor. The Vanagon
does not use this little rubber bumper but it just illustrates that
something small could have got into the tank and is causing a similar issue.

Yes, you can fill the tank with water and flush it several times. The fast
way to dry them is to hook up a hose to the exhaust of a running vehicle
and into the tank. About 15 to 20 minutes and it will be hot and dry as a
bone. Same setup will purge a tank of all gas fumes for welding. Most shop
vacs you can hook the hose to the outlet and blow ambient air through the
tank. Takes a bit longer but will evaporate all volatiles, including water.

At 03:25 PM 08/09/2003, you wrote:

>HI everyone.
>
>To recap, I have an 80 Westie (Rusty):
>
>7) 2 days later, same buzzing problem, intermittent bogging but now
>drivable. I have since blasted air up the outlet tube a couple of times.
>
>9) So today I dropped the tank and it's on my bench. It's in REALLY good
>shape (inside and out) so I pawed through the stack of receipts that
>came with it and it was just replaced 3 years ago.
>
>My question(s):
>
>1) if there is (as I suspect) foreign material in the tank, I can't see
>it by sloshing what little gas that's in it around.  Would it be
>incredibly stupid to rinse the tank out (in fact FILL it) with water and
>try to get whatever out? I could let it sun for several days and even
>help it dry out with a small fan.