Fuel tank removal

[JeffandShawna]

Has anyone ever had to drop the fuel tank on an 86 vanagon, I left mine parked at a campground for a couple weeks and someone needed some gas so they decided to steal it from my vanagons fuel tank, they  sucked it dry, since then I have filled it up but the fuel guage still shows empty??? I was told the colprits probably damaged the float in the tank with a waterhose, now it looks like I will have to drop the tank to check the float. Any ideas or suggestions would be great, thanks,  Jeff

[mark & carol]

if you are going to remove the gas tank you might want to concider replacing it. check the seams if you see any type of rust between the seam.if you do it will start to leak AFTER you reinstall the tank.so get a new tank from bus depot for $170.00 a seal kit for $85.00 and $60.00 for a new sending unit. now you can sleep at night knowing that there is no surprises waiting for you.

[JeffandShawna]

Thanks for the advice Mark, but is it possible at all to get to the sending unit without dropping the tank, if so that might save me some headaches and expences right now seeing that I had to put an exhaust from the cat converter back and an new 02 sensor on it last week, thanks again, Jeff

[Busturd]

Thanks for the advice Mark, but is it possible at all to get to the sending unit without dropping the tank, if so that might save me some headaches and expences right now seeing that I had to put an exhaust from the cat converter back and an new 02 sensor on it last week, thanks again, Jeff

No, I don't believe so.  This is a good opportunity to change out all the lines and grommets which go bad and leak. Don't forget the sender gasket if you do it.

[Vanagonjr]

You do have to drop the tank to change the sender unit.  

Dropping the tank is not a real huge job, but you might just want to make a the job  a bit bigger - that is by replacing all the vent lines, the filler neck gasket and grommets in the top of the tank while you are doing this.  Then you might want to paint the tank as well.  Nothing too hard, but to do everything, let paint dry - you might want to spread this out over two mornings.

You could seg-way into the fuel lines as well, but you should at least replace at least the two fuel lines that you are going to disturb when you remove the tank.  I'd save the fuel filter for a week or so after disturbing the tank, although I did mine right then.

I wrote a fairly lengthy article on this whole fuel tank dropping job and vent lines I can e-mail to you direct if you provide an e-mail address.
However -written from memory so it might not be perfect.

The sender itself has two cross slots cut into it.  I used a pieces of 6" x 1" long steel of the appropriate thickness to act as a tool to unscrew and screw in the senders.

I would not use graphite powder like VW says, this did not lubricate well enough and I broke my new sender.  I went to my old standby, dishwashing liquid on the o-ring/sender and it went in fine.  Today, I'd likely use spray silicone.

John
LiMBO

[phil]

These are interesting posts for me. I'm going to have to drop my tank this year. The "balance" tube on the top of my tank has rotted out. I can't fill my tank all the way up.  If I do it will spill all over the ground.  I did that once last year. It was embarassing and dangerous.

[Stanagon]

Phil,

You should talk to Greg
http://www.gregsrepairservice.com/

I think he can replace the crossover tubes without pulling the tank. Although it may be wise to pull the tank and clean the top of it anyway.

-Stan

[Vanagonjr]

Well, I never thought about that, but there might be one hitch.  

I've done this job twice, once on an air cooled and once on wasserboxer.  The waserboxer had the cross over tube attached to the van via a clamp with a phillips recess right in the middle of the van.  The air cooled van did not.  It makes sense, because of the cooling lines, etc.  that is I believe that you can drop/install an air cooled tank with the cross over tube attached, but not on the water cooled van; the clamp probably held it in place over the coolant lines until the tank was installed.

So with an air cooled van, you could reach in each wheel well and pop the tube out of each grommet, cut the vent lines leading to the expansion tanks in each wheel well (if I remember this all correctly) and pull the tube out.  You would really want to replace the grommets- and there are 3 of them, one to the overflow on the filler neck, so you should have to pull the filler neck too.  

On the H20 van, I doubt you could unscrew the clamp, so you could cut/yank the tube and then perhaps either cut the clamp if you can reach it, or pull an end off the new tube and pray you can snake it through the clamp (unlikely).

Personally, I'd drop the tank.  The amount of mud-like stuff that accumulates up there will likely make you glad that you did.  Then you can replace all the vent lines. you can also paint the tank  - at least the top.

I bet I can drop the tnak after it is empty in less than 15 minutes.  I sure did after I installed the vent tube trough the wheel well an heard one of the new grommets go thunk into the tank  :evil: !  2nd time around is fast!  :lol:

How far away are you, from the Mass/RI coastal border Phil? I could help with this, although I am on crutches right now.    

John

[Stanagon]

I didn't know the water-cooled set-up was different. My recollection of Greg doing the crossover lines without pulling the tank was relative to my air-cooled Vanny.

Sorry to hear you are on crutches John.

[Vanagonjr]

Yes, I can picture doing this on an air-cooled, but unless you are in a hurry, I really would drop the tank.  I painted my brackets that were getting surface rust, as well as the tank and then I got to do all the vent lines as well.

Off crutches now, but leg still ain't all the way better - but heading in the right direction after 3 weeks,

John