fuel(?) vent hoses inside the car, behind tail light panel??

[thedarkie]

Hey guys,

I was disassembling my tail lights in order to re-finish the trims and exterior finisher panels when I saw 2 hoses near the passenger side tail-light, inside the car.

One hose was crudely cut and a piece inserted to patch it back together. This patch came apart and I'm now realizing that this may have been a contributor to the raw fuel smell inside the cabin. The hose definitely smells of fuel and was basically wide open.

I looked all through the manual but didn't find reference to it. This is a 1974 260Z. Can someone post a photo or maybe link to a diagram of how these hoses should look, and what function they serve?

Thanks a bunch

[Captain_Zeros]

It's in chapter FE of the FSM.

[Captain_Zeros]

Here is the 260Z specific diagram.

[Travel'n Man]

Just got finished replacing all the vent hoses in my '72. Looking forward to driving more and smelling fuel less

[thedarkie]

And a valuable lesson is learned: make sure your manual is physically complete before cursing at it for missing key information.

Thanks!! Looks like hoses 6 and 7 simply pass through the passenger compartment... I thought maybe they connected to something inside the car, because my hose has several inches missing and a poor connector was made to replace the section. Perhaps buying some new hose and re-routing via the exterior is an option. Will look into it further.

Thanks again

[thedarkie]

Just got finished replacing all the vent hoses in my '72. Looking forward to driving more and smelling fuel less

Did you document this anywhere by chance? Wondering if you sought out OE-replacement parts or just did your own thing with fuel-rated rubber hose of roughly equal dimension...

[Captain_Zeros]

They do connect to something inside the car!

There is a vapor recovery tank up inside the passenger side sail panel above the gas filler cap (item 3), and a bunch of hoses all run to it.

Funny enough my '73 has one of those hoses (I think #7 if memory serves) chopped and spliced back together as well, I think it was a convenience thing since roughly half the hose is inside the car and half is outside.

[thedarkie]

That vapor tank isn't accessible inside the car though right? That's what I meant when I said they didn't connect to anything inside the car. Am I wrong? Hows the vapor tank accessed?

[Captain_Zeros]

It just so happens the rear interior of my car is all taken apart right now!

The big black blob is the vapor tank, and just below it is the fuel filler neck.

[thedarkie]

Awesome! That looks a bit different than mine but it's probably close judging by diagrams.

Both my hoses are very close to eachother, roughly in the position of your blue hose. I don't have one that runs so far towards the drivers side.

Now that I see the vapor tank, I think I have to tear apart the interior and get a good look at it. I figured it was accessed from the wheel well or something, not from inside the car. There's no doubt my raw fuel smells are coming from that area, perhaps for more reasons than just the torn hose.

Thanks man

[Captain_Zeros]

No prob, my car is a 6/73 240z, and isn't too far off the early 260Zs. Just be careful with your interior panels, they like to shatter when you bend them. Just go slow and make sure you've removed all the little plastic rivet fasteners (you have to shove the pin through then pry the rivet out the front, then try and find all the pins afterwards) and go slowly. The taillight panel has to come out first, then the side panels can be weaseled out. On my '73 the hatch strut bracket gets in the way of removing the drivers side interior panel, I think later cars have gas struts on both side but I don't remember when they started doing that. Also, I have to unbolt my shoulder seatbelts to get the next panel forwards to come up away from the chassis far enough to let me sneak the rear side panels out from under it. The bit I found the sketchiest to remove was right up by the side vents, that corner is pretty fragile.

[thedarkie]

high-five and a virtual beer for you!

Thanks