Fuel tank evap hose leak and tank fuel level question

[hotsho111]

Figured I'd continue posting pictures on this journey. Took the time to adjust the fuel sending unit while I had slightly easier access to it:

It actually works very similar to a toilet bowl float valve. There's an electromechanical connection, that moves up and down a set of progressive longer to shorter wires which adjusts the resistance, which is then used to determine the fuel level.

There are 3 levels of adjustment: bending the float rod itself, bending the high/low tab stops, and unscrewing and adjusting the contact pad location. I ended up needing to adjust the tab stops (to allow a little more travel) and the contact. I tried adjusting the rod a bit, but not sure I actually made any difference.

The tab stops:

The eletromechanical slider with it's adjustment screw:

Just gotta be mindful that you don't want it reading "Empty" when there's literally no fuel left. You want a little head room there.

I had a janky setup with my webcam attached to my phone so I could see the fuel gauge while adjusting the sender, but it ended up working out extremely well.

This was basically the setup I had:

And the view from the camera:

It looks like the tank was sealed in the past, but it looks a little questionable inside the tank, so I'm just going to refinish it. 

[HusseinHolland]

On 3/4/2024 at 4:34 PM, hotsho111 said:

Had to use a little heat on the fuel filler neck to get it off, but managed to get the tank dropped. It looks like someone tried to coat the inside, but didn't do the best job and there's a bunch of rust in it so I'm probably going to just restore the whole thing while I'm at it.

In other good news, poked around at calibrating the fuel level gauge and I think I'll be able to get that into a more accurate spot.

To drop the tank, only the large hose on top needs to be disconnected from the vapor tank end when dropping? Or can the vent hoses be accessed from above the tank as you lower it? Should have asked this sooner - I want to drop the tank & check what's leaking on top of mine before I drive 500 miles this weekend...

[Yarb]

Do you have one of those harbor freight scissor jacks? They work great for removing the tank. I couldn’t reach the hoses on top without lowering it.

[HusseinHolland]

7 minutes ago, Yarb said:

Do you have one of those harbor freight scissor jacks? They work great for removing the tank. I couldn’t reach the hoses on top without lowering it.

No - just a floor jack. Do you mean one of their transmission jacks? I was going to put the car up on jack stands, and use the floor jack to support it, with a wood block to hold it. 

[Yarb]

[SteveJ]

11 minutes ago, Yarb said:

Yep, those work great. I even used my impact gun to raise/lower the jack.

[HusseinHolland]

10 hours ago, Yarb said:

Pic

I'll look on their website - if that's the one they sell as a tranny jack, I need it anyway.

[Yarb]

Works perfectly 

[HusseinHolland]

I might as well add my pics here - since it's related to the original thread. 

Drop the tank, and found the source of my gas fumes/overflow when filling. Smaller vent line off the tank was ruptured. I actually realized I could have seen that if I looked through the louver slots in the tail panel 

Manual for reference 

filler neck base & clamp in great shape.

Removed the remnants of the right side bumper shock, and plugged all the holes. Added butyl to ensure a seal

Had to pull out the bottom of the tank a little. I realized there was no way to lever in there from the fuel sender port as there is a baffle in the way. So I just put a threaded bolt in the drain plug and levered the sucker out evenly working around the circumference of the bolt/plug hole 

Degrease / clean and paint tank. 

Made an elbow to replace the original large loop, the small line I just ran a longer piece, so it could loop gently

Visible through louvers beneath bumper. 

For the inside, I cut the original hose - most of the inside was perfectly good there was no cracks in the the material, so I just ran a splice section from the tank, and used a large quick connect to join the two. new grommets for the lines from ZcarDepot.

I did find out that I put the sender in upside down, as when I started it the gauge pegged full. Drained about 4 gallons, prior to doing the work. 

I realized the notch in the sender plate was supposed to be on the right not on the left - upside down in this pic

 

Edited May 9 by HusseinHolland

[hotsho111]

That hose that's cracked was the same one causing my issues.

I've got a slightly different plan for routing the hoses (basically bending them), but haven't gotten around to that yet. I will post pictures once that's done though

I dropped the tank off at a shop to get refinished, and I'm not happy with the results so I'm going to be refinishing it myself, but the paint I want is out of stock.

I think the difficulty with dropping the tank, or getting access to that hose in the back, kinda depends on how much slack you have in your lines. For me, the top/front hose with the odd bend in it made it so I couldn't drop the tank at all, and had to cut it (you can see it still attached in the earlier picture I posted). 

[HusseinHolland]

@hotsho111 - I looked back at the earlier pics to see what you used to connect the gauge wires - on mine, I had to cut the connector off the stock sender & add spade connectors as a stop gap. I don't know what the factory terminals are supposed to look like for the earlier replacement sender that has no level warning sensor.

[hotsho111]

@HusseinHolland The ones on my car are actually spade connectors with a rubber boot over them