You will never catch me saying that there are no poor designs on the Vanagon!

Anyway, it is all part of the vapor recovery system. If you look inside the front
wheel wells, you will see a plastic tank with two tubes going in/out at the bottom.
This is also part of the system. The tubes go into the top of the tank through
grommets and a couple of tubes attach to metal tubes on the tank. The grommets rot
away or the crossover tube breaks, so you either get fuel spillage or just vapor
smell. The kits include the parts to do the repair job, which involves dropping the
tank, although some have been able to repair part of it without dropping the tank.
I've only done it once. I am sure there are many who have done it lots of times, and
they can elaborate on the process.
Jerry

----- Original Message -----
From: "Weibel, Pius" <weibel@ISGS.UIUC.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 12:06 PM
Subject: T-Pipe at the gas intake?

So the spilling of the gas on fill-up is a fixable problem????  And it
is not because of poor design or overly fast fuel delivery from the gas
pumps??
Can someone explain this to me?
Pius
85 Vanajetta westy

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Gerald Masar
Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 12:50 PM
To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: T-Pipe at the gas intake

Not sure what you are referring to as the T-pipe, but this leaking fuel
on fill-up and/or venting vapors is a common problem. I bought an '88
Westy a year or so ago and the first time I filled it, gas spilled on
the ground. I drove it for a year, but never put more than 7-8 gallons
in at a time. There was a slight odor for a while, but it went away and
I even parked it in the garage with the water heater and it's pilot
light (don't try this at home:)?).
I also have a '90 Westy, which I used for long trips. Anyway, I already
had the kit, so recently dropped the tank to replace everything. The
culprit was the crossover tube, which was broken at one of the 'Y's that
go into the tank. You've been referred to the online sources for the
kit, and there are lot's of how-to's and info in the archives. It's not
to hard to do.
There was some talk on the list recently about the cross-over tube being
in short supply.
I'm going to try to repair my broken one.

Jerry