Gas fumes in interior

[djwarner]

Since acquiring my series I, I have been sorting out various issues including gas fumes in the interior. After reconnecting the vapor control valve to the intake manifold, I noticed I still had the smell of fumes when I parked the car overnight with the windows closed. Yesterday I opened up the right rear interior panel to examine the vapor recovery system expecting to find rotten rubber hoses. The hoses were in surprisingly good shape, so I started examining the fitting when I found the forward tank vent hose nipple was broken off the recovery tank. Aparently someone had shortened the hose at sometime and left the nipple under tension. The through hole in the nipple was drilled off center leaving a weaken side near the tank itself.

I came up with a fix since getting another recovery tank could be difficult. Went to the local home supply store and bought a PEX toilet water feed line since it had a molded head on it to secure the end inside the tank. It also was the right diameter for the particular hose. Once I got it home, I found the diameter of the head was too large to put into the largest opening in the tank, so I reduced the diameter on a bench belt sander. I opened the original hole with a taper reamer and used some speaker wire fed from the small hole to the large hole as a fish. Once the new line was inplace, I secured it with JB Weld Expoxy Putty.

Doesn't look like new but it works.

[Captain Obvious]

Nice work. I'm kinda surprised that they used a plastic tank for that at all.

One other thing... looking at the pictures, it looks like there may be the start of a split on the next larger nipple. The one next to the one you already fixed? Is that a camera anomaly or is that one starting to crack off as well?

[ZCurves]

Your repair looks great (I luv JB Weld), However, I would consider replacing with a later model S30 steel tank. When the panel is replaced, no one will know the difference.

[djwarner]

Looking at the high rez picture of the middle nipple, I have to agree there appears to be another crack in the making.

Considering the yanking and pushing I did on it when re-installing the hoses, it is still strong enough to last a while. I'm pretty sure that hose was pushed up past the crack during re-installation. With the hassle of removing the quarter panel trim, I think I'll wait to repair it until the next time I'm in there or until fumes return.

[Captain Obvious]

Well I'm guessing that if you don't smell gas, then you should be OK for the time being.

I once fixed a plastic gas tank for a piece of lawn and garden equipment by making some brass feed-throughs. If you get completely desperate, something like this would probably work on your vent tank as well. Clearly not worth the effort I put into it, but if you find you've still got a problem and the simpler solutions don't hold:

[jwtaylor]

I had a steel vapor tank in my 12/70 series one 240 until just the last weekend. It was from a '73 I believe. You will find that you will need some spacer blocks to mount it. You will also need to slightly modify the plastic panel to clear the tank and mount properly. It may have been an issue with the year of the steel vapor tank I got. Do a search on eliminating the vapor tank to see some solutions.