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Subject:Re: Procedure on my 85 Westy tank reseal
From:Scott Chapman
Date:Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:43:01 -0400

Your web site has this for the description of that product (it's truncated):

"Fits 2wd Vanagon 83�-91 (Fr Vin 25-D-114613). Comes complete with
Breather Crossover Assembly (not a "generic" hose assy, but a correctly
made piece exclusively reproduced by Airhead/VWG), 1.5 meters of 5mm ID
Fuel Hose, 20 Fuel Hose Clamps, 3 Breather t" and there is no image.
Your kit doesn't include as much hose.  I had about 3 inches left when
done.  I made all the hoses a little bit longer when I did mine.

Their site's description is available at
http://www.van-cafe.com/home/van/page_493_293/fuel_tank_reseal_kit_a.html.

Old Volks Home wrote:
> Scott -
>
> Just out of curiousity, why not order the Fuel Tank Reseal Kit which
> includes the Expansion Tank Seals and the Clamps from airheadparts.com
> <http://airheadparts.com> ?  It's only $99 for everything.
>
> http://www.airheadparts.com/viewDetail.asp?strMasterCat=&idproduct=8983
> <http://www.airheadparts.com/viewDetail.asp?strMasterCat=&idproduct=8983>
> --
> Jim Thompson
> 84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
> 84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
> 72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
> 75 914 1.8 (No Name Yet)
> Full Timing Since March 1999
> oldvolkshome@gmail.com <mailto:oldvolkshome@gmail.com>
> http://www.oldvolkshome.com
> ***********************************
> On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 11:55 AM, Scott Chapman
> <scott_list@mischko.com <mailto:scott_list@mischko.com>> wrote:
>
>     Buy the two grommets for the top of the expansion tank as well as the
>     replacment kit.  I found in mine that those two grommets were rather
>     shot and the rest of the grommets were in good shape.
>
>     Buy clamps.  Everyone says, "This is low pressure - don't need
>     clamps."
>     The originals had clamps.  You will need two sizes because the
>     crossover
>     pipe is bigger than the rest.  I got two clamps for the crossover
>     hoses
>     at the local store.  Everything else mail ordered as below.
>
>     Old style clamps are used all around.  Cut them with strong end
>     cutters.
>      Wire cutters won't work.
>
>     I ordered from airheadparts.com <http://airheadparts.com/>:
>
>     2 x N90100501 - Grommet, Fuel Expansion Tank  @  $5.50
>
>     20 x N245281 - Clamp, 5mm (Carb) Fuel Hose  @  $0.92
>
>     >From van-cafe.com <http://van-cafe.com/>:
>
>     Fuel Tank Reseal Kit A
>     251.201.KIT.A   1       $109.50         $109.50
>
>     (I also ordered parts to upgrade fuel filter and hose up to the
>     engine.
>      If you do this, don't get the stupid expensive fitting for the
>     firewall. Just run the hose on through or zip-tie it below its
>     original
>     hole.)
>
>     There is one part that didn't come in the reseal kit that should have.
>     There's a hose from the fuel tank fill down to the tank and the
>     fitting
>     that goes into the tank is plastic.  That plastic piece wasn't
>     included
>     in the kits.  Not a biggie as mine was fine and reusable.
>
>     Put the front of the rig on jacks stands. Set the brake.
>
>     Removing the front wheels gives you more room to work around in there.
>     I got by ok removing the passengers side only. Put towel over
>     wheel/brake assembly.
>
>     Disconnect negative lead at battery.
>
>     Drain the fuel out of the tank by disconnecting the fuel line that
>     feeds
>     the fuel pump then the return line.  I didn't disconnect these
>     from the
>     tank itself, but from the next fitting up the line.  This is one
>     little
>     section I didn't replace on mine.  It's also easier to direct the
>     draining into the bucket.  Drill bits make good temporary plugs for
>     these hoses when you're done draining.  If you remove at the tank then
>     you have to come up with some way to cap them which is more
>     challenging.
>
>     Drain into a 5-gallon plastic bucket (be careful not to do
>     anything with
>     that plastic bucket that will make a static spark).  Use a funnel and
>     pour from 5-gallon bucket to a proper gas can and seal it up.
>
>     Figure out that the front hoses to the expansion tanks go to the front
>     on the tank, etc.  You need to put them back the same.  I cut the fuel
>     line going to the expansion tanks using a razor knife because I
>     had new
>     stuff to replace them with.  The front hoses on each side, I cut close
>     to the tanks (not close enough to cut the plastic fittings from
>     the tank
>     so about an inch and a half). The back ones on each side I cut a
>     couple
>     inches further from the overflow tanks.  This way it's easy to tell
>     which go where later when you're sizing new ones, etc.
>
>     Pulling the overflow tanks.  The way these are held in is rather
>     interesting. Why there are even there is rather unknown to me. There's
>     one bolt.  You remove it and pull out and down on the BACK of the
>     tank,
>     not the front where the bolt is.  You will see how they are held into
>     the wheel well. Take a putty knife and clean all the accumulated road
>     crud out of those and off the tank.  Don't pull down too far on the
>     tanks.  There's a hose at the top.  Don't remove the hose from the
>     plastic. Remove the plastic from the tank. Wear latex gloves (I do for
>     all mywork). The rubber will likely be deteriorated and sticky.
>
>     You can replace the grommets and put those right back in place after
>     removing the remaining hoses off the bottom after u cut 'em:
>
>     Disconnect hoses to the expansion tanks.  (Keep the pieces as you'll
>     need them to get the right length when cutting new hoses.)  Two
>     hoses go
>     to the bottom of each of these.  Where they attach to the tanks the
>     fittings are easy to bust off.  Pull hoses off STRAIGHT!  It is fairly
>     easy to remove the hoses.  Putting them back on is where you break
>     things as they are mounted in the van and easy to go sideways on as
>     you're pushing.  Put vaseline on the plastic fittings to make things
>     slide easier and be very careful putting the host back on or you'll
>     "have stress". (I like to avoid stress).  I broke one of mine and
>     it was
>     just far enough down the fitting that I simply continued putting the
>     host on and clamped it.
>
>     Ignore the other hose up by the expansion tanks.
>
>     Fuel fill pipe.  The Bently tells you to remove the clamp on the
>     inside
>     here.  There wasn't any, and it won't come apart there.  I had to
>     unscrew the 3 screws that hold it in place under the gas cap. One of
>     them was very difficult to get out. ' Had to push HARD and turn
>     CAREFULLY.  Eventually it cooperated.  I replaced them with sheet
>     metal
>     screws with bolt heads so I can use a socket to remove them in the
>     future.  Remove the vent line from this assembly AT THE TANK, not up
>     near the fill spout.  It is not technically needed to remove the fill
>     spout assembly to remove the tank because you can make the tank drop
>     toward the pasenger side and thus pull the fill tube out of the
>     tank as
>     you drop it.  It's very tricky to re-install the tank using this
>     procedure.  I don't recommend it.  I removed my spout completely,
>     took a
>     wire wheel and removed all the rust/crud on the thing (tank side and
>     fill side) and applied some black spray paint (masking the surface
>     where
>     the gas cap goes with masking tape).  Very pretty when done.  Even if
>     there was a clamp and I could disconnect the filler from the tube, I'd
>     do it this way, I think.
>
>     The vent lines to the overflow tanks are now removed and the fill
>     spout.
>      There's the bigger vent line that goes across the tank.  Reach
>     into the
>     wheel wells and pull them up.  They will pop out fairly easily.  Leave
>     that hose with fittings hanging there. It's attached to the floor
>     of the
>      van and you can't remove it yet because the tanks in the way to
>     unscrew
>     that.
>
>     The only thing left attached is the fuel sending wire.  You get that
>     after you lower the tank part way.
>
>     Pulling the tank:
>
>     The tank is on two metal rails that go fore and aft.  They have
>     bolts at
>     the front and are curved down at the back, which goes into a slot
>     on the
>     cross member.  When I lowered mine, I found that I hadn't jacked
>     up the
>     van far enough to get the curved portion to clear the slots.  So I
>     took
>     a pair of channel locks and bent the curves to where they'd clear.
>      Whew!
>
>     You should be able to lower the front of the rails to the ground and
>     leave the back up in the slots.  The tank won't drop much at all like
>     this.  Take a flashlight with you and you get under the tank with your
>     head to the back of the van and your knees under the middle of the
>     tank.
>     It's easy to hold it up with your knees.  Then you remove the
>     rails and
>     move them out of the way while holding the tank.  Push forward on the
>     tank so the front stays on the lip up there and lower the back gently.
>     You'll see the sending unit wire on the left up in there.  Reach up in
>     and pull that wire out.  Then you can lower the tank with your
>     knees and
>     roll out from under it.  Remember that there's an opening on the
>     pasenger side where the fill spout goes in so roll out on that side.
>     That way the hole stays high and you don't wear any gasoline.
>
>     Note carefully where the crossover hose is routed above and below
>     things.  It should not go ABOVE all the junk going fore and aft.  Some
>     of that junks is too high up and will cause the new fittings to not go
>     back into the tank nicely when you replace later.  Remove it.  The new
>     one has a longer hose and isn't hose clamped.  Put hose clamps on the
>     new one.  Longer hose is no problem, though you may decide not to
>     clamp
>     it to the floor when you replace it.
>
>     Snip all the old clamps on the tank except the two that run fuel lines
>     in/out the back (I didn't replace these as mine were fine). YMMV.
>     Replace all the existing hose, grommets, and clamps.  Put vaseline on
>     the inside diameter of all the grommets including the one the fill
>     spout
>     goes into.  Just a light layer.  You don't want it going on into the
>     tank and your fuel system.
>
>     Clean around the fuel sending cap and remove it by twisting counter
>     clockwise a bit.  Replace seal.  I took a 1/2 inch cold chisel and
>     carefully scraped the rubber off the tank and put the new seal on.
>     Don't
>     forget vaseline on top or it'll be very hard to twist back on.
>
>     Note on hoses to the overflow tanks.  There are two different diameter
>     hoses on the original.  The smaller diameter hoses have little
>     clips in
>     that hold them up in the wheel well.  I replace all the hose with a
>     single piece and zip-tied them to the other hose up there which holds
>     them fine.
>
>     I added an inch or so on all my hoses.  Probably wasn't necessary.
>      I'll
>     never know. :)
>
>     Put the crossover hose in place above the tank, remembering it's
>     route.
>      Use the upper clamp to the floor of the van if you want to (I
>     didn't).
>       Put the tank back in the way you got it out and reconnect the fuel
>     sending line as you raise the tank.  ' Trick is to keep it up on the
>     front cross member while you work with it but not difficult.  Have the
>     two rails handy and put them back but leave the front hanging
>     down.  The
>     tank will sit there until you get to the front and tighten up the
>     bolts.
>
>     Push the hose fittings into the top of the tank grommets.  The
>     crossover
>     hose goes in the hole toward the back on the passenger side.  They
>     should go quite easily if you put on vaseline.  Fuel filler spout goes
>     into the tank then reattached to the side of the van with new sheet
>     metal screws.  Breather hose from filler hose goes back into top
>     of tank
>     in the hole in front of the hole the crossover line goes in.  Re-use
>     plastic fitting on this one.
>
>     Re-attach hoses out the back of the tank.
>
>     Reconnect negative terminal.
>
>     Put some gas back in the tank and start it up.
>
>     Off jack stands.
>
>     Go fill it up all the way and see if it leaks any more!
>
>     Happy trails,
>
>     Scott
>     '85 Westy - not named yet.
>