Fuel tank removal..... FINISHED!!!!

penny said

wow thats ?45 cheaper than anywhere i looked, thanks, well its just the manifold that really needs to be replaced sooner or later, the rest of the exhaust system is fine really, no decisions are ever easy when mk1's are concerned are they?!

Its okay - I only just found that website, after a tip-off from CGTI forum! Shall I send you my Paypal account and you can send the ?45 to me??? Nah, then I'd have to send it on to my tipster!

haha yes, er, your cheques in the post paul!!!

who's your daddy!! Managed to seperate the centre section with the manifold today with the help of an angle grinder, wahey, then managed to remove the fuel tank, only just though!! Right next question, how do i get rid of all the muck in the tank???

Cheers,

Dave

You can flush it with water as long as you can get the water out again (quite hard even with an air line), or you can use fresh petrol.

It's surprisingly difficult to get all the bits out - I used loads of petrol and shook the tank until no more came out, but it took a while and the tank's really awkward to hold in a position where fuel drains out quickly.

People have had varying degrees of success using a large magnet underneath the inspection cover, followed by a small magnet on a stick. This may be worth a go first, although I found it didn't work very well for me - the small magnet kept sticking to the tank and not to the bits  

How much stuff is in there?

Rich

You could shake and swill it out, and use the magnet trick, so it gathers at a low spot between the filler neck entrance and just to the left of the access hole (level gauge sender). Then soak up all the fuel, etc with paper towels or something? Then use the accessory nozzle on a vacuum cleaner to lift the rubbish out.

hi spent all day sunday removing tank and flushing it out as good as i could used the hoover magnets and flushing with clean petrol. Couldn't see or hear any bits left in the tank so replaced it on car  blew out fuel lines with a compressor and put on new filter but today back to the same old trouble checked everything on car finally got to the jets in the carb to find wot i'd class as a big bit of rust stuck in the main jet removed this and runs lovely but how did a bit this size get through a new filter :dontknow:. went for a drive to see how things were and for 3 miles lovely then round a corner and its blocked again wot do do next? NEW fuel lines and tank ,filler neck already new at a loss please anyone got further advice on this  
Cheers
Sp1der

hi havin had no reply as yet couldnt stop thinkin about fuel problem and how to cure it had sender off again today to see a few bits still in my tank to my frustration after cleaning.i finally decided the only way to guarantee a clean tank and system is to get new tank and fuel pipes so while thinking of another way to solve looking through bits and pieces that i have i found a weber fuel filter of some twin 40's i'm currently polishing this normaly goes inside the carb inlet pipe looks like a thimble anyway decided to see if this could somehow put this in the fuel line somewhere haning the sender to hand tryed that first and found that pickup end was of very similar size to the filter after further investigation found that plastic end of pickup pipe has a blank at the end which flicks out with use of stanley blade i then had idea of putting the guaze part of filter inside which i have now done and replaced little blank was at first worried that this would restrict the fuel but at moment it doesnt have now done 8 miles with this fitted with no probs at all also runing on 1/4 of a tank which which seems to be when the problem is more frequent i will keep posting to let you know if this solves the problem long term
Sp1der

Sounds like a pain in the backside to me sp1der, i know how you feel though, i've got a stupid amount of rust in the tank, i just can't get rid of it all so i'm considering just getting a new tank for piece of mind, which again is going to hit the piggy bank!! Saying that though i've yet to try magnets!!

Dave

hi still driving with gauze fitted in the sender done 27 miles now without a cough or splutter and still pulls well up to 85 mph so seems to work maybe put off new fuel tank for a while anyway hope you have better luck with the last bit of rubbish than me the magnets are ok as long as its magnetic rubbish :?  will keep posting my about the gauze to see if it really does work or is just a fluke

Still Going        

You could contact the PR agent for "The Borrowers" and for the right money i reckon they would climb in the tank and sweep it out for you….


or

try the cast of 'Honey I shrunk the Kids' - not to be confused with the sequel 'Honey i blew up the kids' - they wouldn't stand a chance of gettin inside.














its nearly home time

haha yeah thats a good idea, brought a new fuel tank anyway now, got all the bits ready to fit, fitting the pipe between the filler nick and the tank is going to be hard though..............

8) where'd you buy the tank from mate and how much was it?

something I'm thinking of doing next year is replacing the back axle and tank

the tank was only ?80 from gsf, i think its well worth it for peice of mind, if you're replacing the back axle you should find it quite easy to do, the only probs i came across were getting the back end high enough and trying to undo rusty bolts and clips, and i did make things difficult by not dropping the axle completely though, good luck anyway!!!!

and i did make things difficult by not dropping the axle completely though, good luck anyway!!!!

Agree there   . Can't see the point of wrestling with the exhuast when you can just undo the brake lines/hoses and completely remove the rear axle. Handbrake cables should be easy to disconnect and if the flexihoses and lines are that difficult to undo they probably need replacing anyway as they are either corroded or have been cross theaded.

Cheers

Yeah in an ideal world i would have disconnected the brake hoses but just didn't have the time, my insurance ran out today and i spent pretty much six hours finally getting it all done yesterday, wahey, went for a long drive today and yestreday and boy was it worth the wait, 100 miles worth(been off the road for a month), the fuel tank form gsf didn't fit quite right though, the hole for the line going to the fuel pump was forward too far and it just didn't fit quite right, good old gsf, well it wasn't too bad a job apart from around ten cuts on my hands and half a ton of rust in my eyes!!!

cheers for all the advice on the way, btw got away with re-fitting the old centre section after the angle grinder had a go at it, woohoo!!

Dave

Oh yeah I was meaning to update this thread…..today I found out that you can't fit the tank past the axle, even if you've taken the bolts out, because the flexi hoses aren't long enough. On my other car (GTI) I'd fitted longer brake flexi hoses, so it made it possible. But on the cabby, the stanard ones were shorter so it didn't work out.

Luckily, I was able to undo the flexi hose to rigid hose connections without destroying the connection, so it was a simple case of refitting after.

It took me around 6 hours too, I did some yesterday and nearly finished today. I accidentally ran the master cylinder out of brake fluid, so now I have to bleed the entire system! And the battery is going flat too (and its an auto so there's no chance of bump starting or anything). I guess with a carb engine (and mechanical fuel pump), you just keep turning the motor over until it picks up fuel?

I guess with a carb engine (and mechanical fuel pump), you just keep turning the motor over until it picks up fuel?

Yes, my mk2 1.8 carb ran out of petrol the other week. Took a good 20 secs of cranking to get the fuel through, pumping the throttle pedal while turning it over seemed to help.

Cheers