There's a lot about this in the archives... D. Haynes warns that you risk
pump starvation/damage and vapor lock (iirc) if you let the pre-filter get
too clogged, but several listees do this apparently without problems. If you
put one in you should treat it as a maintenance item- change it out every
time you rotate your tires or change your brake fluid or whatever works for
you. In other words don't let it get choked up.

Cya,
Robert

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Lincoln" <magikvw@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: Final stage of my long term fuel pump issue - what would you
do?

> Greg -
>
> I agree - this never made sense to me either. Is there any reason why
> someone couldn't replace the filter before the pump? I have even hear of
> people who put a filter before and after.
>
>
> On 10/18/06, Greg Potts <greg@pottsfamily.ca> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Volks,
>>
>> This sort of thing is exactly why I question the wisdom of VW's
>> migration of the Vanagon fuel filter to place it BEHIND the fuel pump.
>>
>> A filter before this pump would have saved it. Damaging fuel
>> contaminants can indeed be smaller than the outlet screen on the tank.
>>
>> Happy Trails,
>>
>> Greg Potts
>> 1973/74/75/77/79 Westfakia "Bob the Tomato"
>> www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia
>> www.busesofthecorn.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 18-Oct-06, at 2:11 AM, Curt Newsome wrote:
>>
>> > Thanks to all who responded to my earlier post about
>> > my noisy fuel pump. The story is not over but I'm
>> > getting close.
>> >
>> > To make a long story short my fuel pump was noisy and
>> > eventually failed completely because it got plugged up
>> > with a fine rust colored silt from my just "cleaned"
>> > tank.  While the ruined pump is apparently my problem
>> > (shop taking no responsibility for this), they have
>> > offered to re-remove the tank and send it back to
>> > Seatle Radiator to be re-cleaned.
>> >
>> > I'm wondering if I should just replace the tank - I
>> > guess I'm just skeptical of anyone's ability to really
>> > clean out the old one and am pretty sick of dealing
>> > with this.  And i really don't want to ruin anohter
>> > fuel pump (this one was new in June!).
>> >
>> > The guy at Seattle Radiator seemed pretty baffled that
>> > a tank he had just cleaned could have had gunk in it
>> > and claimed that they had never had a problem before,
>> > but was more than willing to redo the work (more than
>> > I can say for my soon-to-be-former VW mechanic).  Any
>> > opinion on which route to take?  While it would be
>> > cheaper to let them re-clean, the last thing I want is
>> > any more trouble out of this - ever.
>> >
>> > What would you do? Any advice on backyard Seattle
>> > mechanics who could install a new tank cheerfully
>> > accepted!
>> >
>> > Thanks for your help!
>> >
>> > Curt Newsome
>> > '85 Westy
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Thanks,
>
> Jeff
> 90' Carat (It's Blue, It's Beautiful, It needs a lot of work)
> 86' (Soon to be donating organs to the 90')
> 85' GL (sidelined but to be resurected in the near future)