>Date:	Wed, 6 Mar 1996 12:02:25 -0600
>From:	stafford@newport26.hac.com (Jack Stafford)
>Sender:	vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu
>To:	Multiple recipients of list <vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu>
>Subject:	Re: Driving Westy to South America!
>
>On Tue, 5 Mar 1996 15:05:59, Alain Abraham Joseph 
<x92fka@juliet.stfx.ca>
> wrote:
>>	We have the ultimate, a lime green '78 Westy as our chariott. 
144,000 
>>miles on her. For the most part we are VW rookies and WE NEED 
HELP (with 
>>our van). Problems/Questions we have:
>>1) Below half a tank our fuel gage doesn't work! (arrgh!)  
>
>Replace the fuel gauge sending unit. The engine and fuel tank 
should be
>removed for this operation.  

Contrary to what the manual says, the gas tank can be removed from 
a late Bus without removing the engine.  Only a few ancilliary 
items have to come off (heater blower, air flow meter, etc.)  It 
was a VERY tight squeeze when I did it, but it did come out.

Alternatively, you can remove the sending unit while the tank is 
still in the bus, by cutting a small hole above the gas tank, a few 
inches in front of the engine access cover (under the rear 
mattress).  I've never done this, but I've owned three busses that 
already had small holes cut in that location by the previous owners 
for this purpose. In one case, I had to change the sending unit a 
2nd time in a bus that already had this hole cut - took 5 minutes 
to pull it out. Don't recall precisely where the hole was - I 
suspect an exact measurement would prevent cutting in the wrong 
spot. If you wanted to persue this quick-and-dirty approach, I'm 
sure someone out there must have a bus with such a hole already 
cut, and could tell you where the hole is. Of course, you would 
have to patch the new hole, and be careful in cutting not to 
penetrate the gas tank.  Don't know how easy this is, just know 
that I've seen it done. 
>