Louise - Marcus,

Just dropped my tank (80 Vanagon-L) for this same problem - I'd fill up and
had gas just pour out of the tank - now Louise - you're saying that it is
leaking from the seam, but I expect that its one of the seals on top of the
tank (3-rubber grommets for vent lines - the sending unit o-ring and the
filler neck grommet) or the fuel line connecting the expansion tank semi-rigid
tubes to the tank. I expect that the fuel is running down and exiting from the
seam area where is rests against the frame. With a small mirror and strong
flashlight, you can see the top of the tank by looking through the wheel well
- angling the mirror - etc. Fill it up & take a look.

The rubber seals on my 80 were gummy/dry rotted/fuel-degraded, but my Vanagon
is 18 years old - I also needed a fuel sender - so, I replaced all seals,
rubber fuel line and the filler neck seal - about $20 for seals, $2 for fuel
line and $40 for the sender from bus depot (included o-ring seal). Its amazing
how many leak paths there are in this design - and fuel is not nice to rubber
over time - leakage from the seam is not impossible, but far less likely than
a seal. Also - all rubber fuel lines need to be replaced in the 10yr time
frame as the ends dry-rot and split IMHO - Seen too many fryed VW's due to bad
fuel lines. If you end up with a gas tank seal job, its a good time to
check/replace the rubber lines as well.

If you have either the Bentley or Haynes manual, there's a fairly good diagram
of the fuel system/tank interconnections in both books.

Regards,

Ken Stich
80 Vanagon-L
85 Prelude Si
57 Beetle

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marcus wrote:
>
> I thing your leaking from the sending unit gasket.If it only leaks if the tank
> is full this is your problem. Drive van until very low on gas and drop tank and
> replace sending unit gasket. THTM  = This happen to me
>
> LAC wrote:
>
> > Greetings Volks.
> >
> > Gas tank was leaking yesterday....... after having parked horizontally on a
> > rather steep incline for the entire day....and after having filled the tank
> > that morning.......Leaking from side flange seam. ......on an Extremely hot
> > day (102 degrees in shade)......What is the remedy?  Should I be driving
> > this?
> >
> > TIA.!
> >
> > Louise
> > 89 Westy "Box of Rain"
> > 72 Westy "The Villa"