Club 80-90 Forums

Fellow Vanagonisti,

 One of my winter projects is to make the fuel tank on Bezza, my 1980 Westy, cease leaking whenever I fill her up.
Going by her plastic fuel filler neck and reasonable looking tank I'll hazard an educated guess that they have been replaced in the recent past. 
Nevertheless i was reading on the Gowesty.com website Fuel Tanks & Level Senders: An Investigation – GoWesty and wondered what the panel's opinions were with regards to fitting a later fuel level sender.

Many Thanks,
Rick 

When i bought my 82 Aircooled van in 1988 it already had the early tank and large metal filler neck replaced with the later tank and small neck plastic filler. When i scrapped the van i removed the tank sender and that was the original early version . Brickwerks have early and late senders based on chassis numbers . The early and late fuel tank year change isnt the same as the year of the senders changes. Early fuel tank was used up to august 1983 but the sender in the tank went to 86 . I would keep using an early type sender in your tank or if you do drop the tank and take it out have a look to see if it got replaced, it will have part numbers and a date stamp as well. Are you sure the tank itself has been replaced with a later style tank ? The later plastic filler necks can be fitted to the early tank with a conversion rubber.

You might save some time by checking the breather / balance pipe unions are secure at the front of the tank, sometimes not fully inserted or are pulled loose when dropping the tank. You should be able to see the top of them by looking through the front wheel arch and across the chassis rail and if you are of slight build, should be able to get an arm through there.