the rusty fuel system

Moving on to other stuff we noticed rust color in the fuel filter and we weren't to sure how bad so lets tear it down and find out why.

We drained the little bit of fuel out and got to the tank. Interesting finds were the vent hoses were simply one vent hose jumped over to the other so were really not venting at all.

It would appear the fuel tank has been worked on in the past as the sock has been removed and the tank was welded back together.

so we ordered a new vent system,3 port filter and a clear filter from OGTS and a completed fuel tank cleaning/degreasing system,etcher and resealer from Eastwood.

While were waiting lets look at what else is going on OH BOY looks like the entire fuel system from tank to carb is getting replaced

I'm shocked as brittle as the return and fuel line is it hasn't broke and or caught us on fire good grief.

OK in the mean time waiting on stuff lets build something to hold the fuel tank for cleaning and sealing and get it prepped

So this is what we came up with to take care of the tank and it works great

these pics are after the tank was cleaned etched and sealed the first pic is from the beginning.

We had a slight leak at the fitting we thought where the fuel line attaches so we had ordered a new fitting,boot and fuel sending unit as part of the fuel vent order.

AAHHH it appears it wasn't the fitting at all but a small pin hole in the previous weld made by others the weld on the bottom didn't look to bad but the one on top is where we were leaking HHHMMM. How should I go about this one. of coarse old faithful JB weld we scratched up the bottom good applied the jb and let it set for 4 days.

Then we began the daunting process of the inside. I counted 61, 3/8 nuts and dropped them into the tank we sealed all the vent ports with some rubber nipples we found at HD for like wire shelf ends and such and put small hose clamps on them to secure.

We then took the old fuel line adapter and capped it with jb weld and a washer between the fitting and tank.

We then pulled the cap off the old sending unit applied a screw and nut with washers on both sides .

Now were ready to clean

I wish I would have taken some pics of the nasty crap coming out of this tank while we were cleaning holy moly was it nasty.

So after the cleaning we pulled all the nuts out and counted to verify we got them all.

Now the etching process man am I glad I built this giro stand thing it was very helpful

Etching is done and we have to dry this tank thoroughly I started with the shop vac cleaned and a new filter in it put the hose on the exhaust side and opened all the ports back up in the tank.

I let that run for a couple hours to really get a jump on getting it dried out

Then I got the dehumidifier out shut down the garage set that sucker as low as I could get it and set it directly under the sending unit port of the tank.

The next morning it was completely dry and verified by my cable cam so I could see into the baffles and around the corners in the tank

Then we sealed it this is where we found another unforeseen leak in the top of the tank at another one of the welds but small enough that the sealer did a heck of a job sealing and with the last bit of sealer still usable we painted the entire outside of the tank as an extra measure against future leaks at the welds.

We then left the tank in the sun for 7 days to allow it to cure good.

In the mean time we snatched all the vent tubes, fuel lines, filters,ect and started over we ran a thick walled refrigerant 5/16 copper tubing as our main fuel line. and spliced where needed with rubber fuel line to make connections to filters,pump & carb. we grabbed irrigation drip line at HD to use as our return line installed the original 3 port filter at the carb and the see through filter at the end of the lead tube leaving the tank

we also wrapped the copper fuel line with rubber as it came around the front of the valve cover which helped secure it better in the fuel line mount

This is the old but interesting fuel filter we removed I found it puzzling as to why there was a restrictor in it .we'll see what up on that front once we get the tank back in and go for it.

here's the old sending unit that wasn't quite sending properly and since we have this sucker apart it would foolish to not replace it with limited history on this little gem.

OOK we'll it's been 7 days and were putting everything back together but before we do I need to make sure I've cleared all the vent ports in the tank (almost forgot to check) And glad I did I had some work to do as the sealer did it's job LOL

We're all back together now with the venting redone as per OGTS and FSM states let's mix up some fuel using non ethanol, sea foam and lead additive/substitute. Put 5 gallons in.

No reading to the gauge for fuel CRAP called ogts they ran me through some checks and gosh darn it I have a bad unit like it's stuck or something OH WELL moving forward let's see if it'll start.

Success it starts I'm still trying to figure out the whole choke thing on this But i'll get it. It runs choppy as heck until it warms up.

Now I'm smelling gas WTF where the hell is it coming from wev'e looked all over and don't see it any where.

AH son of a biscuit the gosh darn fuel pump that wasn't leaking before is now leaking out of the darn peep hole (you SOB) Hey Gil can you send me a new fuel pump for this thing (sure do you want the euro oem style) yes sir thank you.

Once the pump came in it's replaced and I figured out the whole cold start procedure and the high idle deal she's running like a charm.

I forgot to mention that we also did some work to the wiring in the rear before reinstalling the tank as the reverse light didn't work. We did find a ground that didn't appear to go to anything but was the right length to make it to the reverse light so we feed it through removed the light and attached it but still no light we will look into that later but all the rest of the wiring back there is repaired as well as some loose bulbs in the side markers. STAY TUNED AS THE COOLING SYSTEM IS NEXT AS SHE IS RUNNING WAY TO DARN HOT.