Thread: A new car!
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Unread 04-26-2015, 10:56 AM   #120
GlenL
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Another job done. The gas tank is back in position along with the fuel pumps.

This was fairly tough to get right. I'm not sure what a stock installation looks like but there was no way to make it work "right."

As I've mentioned, the car was in an accident and the tank was moved out of position and that lead to it wearing through. Fixed that above. Looking the the cradle, it was really bent and didn't fit nicely over the tank. I should have a cradle but apparently it got launched. ("I'll never need this") Note to everyone: keep everything.

Bending the cradle back to fit on the tank was a challenge. When one part gets bent right something else needs readjustment. The pic shows the final result with new foam padding glued on. That's tool box liner about 1/8" thick. I'm not sure what it would do when exposed to gas but for now it's working well. Some 3M trim adhesive did the trick of binding it nicely. A lot of scraping and cleaning was needed to get reasonable bare and clean metal for that to work.

Putting the tank and cradle back was really hard. The first challenge was getting the tank into position and attaching the two vent hoses. There's a 3.8" that goes to the expansion tank that's not too bad. Then there's the "balance" line that tires the neck to the main tank. 14.5mm ID fuel line worked for that. Hard to get to the fittings to apply it and to tighten the clamps. To make it worse, I cut the hose too short and it needed more than half of the meter I bought. It's tight in there and I hope there's no problem or I'll have to drop the whole thing to fix it.

It seems inevitable now, but after bending the cradle to fit the tank the cradle didn't line up with the bolt holes. Better hindsight is that I should have checked that before installing the tank and the hoses. The rear-side two mounts have a slat between them meaning it won't just flex a bit, and it needed an inch. The biggest concern is that there was no way the cradle was going to mount all the way up and have it's strap ends tight to the body. Looking from the top in the hatch, the level sender was high up and reasonably centered in the access hole. What gives? Hopefully not the tank.

My solution was to grab a bunch of 10mm engine girdle washers and make stand-offs. Those washers are maybe 2mm thick each. The forward mounts got 2 washers each and the rears got 6. That's a lot of distance. The tank got held securely but not overly tight and the bolts are all cranked tight. Some loctite gives extra hope that it's going to stay.

I should add that the tank was previously held using some long (4"-5") bolts on the rear with the forward bolts tight. The PET shows 45mm (~2") bolts all around. I assume they're supposed to clamp the cradle completely to the body. The long bolts were driven in to the depth of the thread and the cradle hung down like 4" at the rear. WTF? The made the cradle hold the tank wrong and led to the chaffing and leak.

The fuel pump assembly went back nicely but the confounded cover fought me. The bolts that hold it corroded to the straps so I've rigged some 10mm bolts that can't be seen when being threaded. At least the newly painted cover looks nice.

Just the exhaust system and lower bellhousing left to put on. Then put in a couple of gallons of gas and fire it up. I'll be checking the clutch for correct play first. That'll be crucial.
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