The Corvair developed a fuel drip a while ago that seemed to go away but would always appear as soon as the tank was full. Here’s what happened. The fuel line between the tank and engine is connected to the tank by a rubber hose. At one point, tightening the hose clamps stopped the drip but shortly later it would came back. Today was my day to fix this problem.
Not having a siphon, I disconnected the old hose and drained the contents into two gas cans. (That was nice as one of our other cars needed some gas.) Then I took a bit of the hose down to the local NAPA store. For $1.26, I had a foot of 3/8” fuel injector hose that I attached with little difficulty. But after tightening things down, the hose leaked at both ends!
Back to NAPA I walked for the next size smaller hose. This time I purchase a 5/16” hose and appropriate hose clamps. This seemed to be a no-brainer. But after attaching the hose and double clamping it on each end, the leak was worse than before! Can you guess what happened? Yep, it was the steel lines on both ends. A tiny hole in each was spurting out the contents of the gas tank. Not good.
After draining the tank for the third time, I dried off the steel lines and examined them. My plan was to cut them off at the leaking point. But just to be sure, I pulled down the center under cover that covers the center of the car’s duct work, linkage, and lines. (That also gave me the opportunity to paint that cover.) But back to the repair. It would do no good to attach a hose to a line that was leaking further back. Happily, the line was not leaking anywhere else.
So, with the help of a hacksaw, I trimmed the steel fuel lines back and made my final trip to NAPA. (Mike, the guy behind the counter, said I could come back as often as I wished.) This time I bought two feet of 5/16” hose just to be sure. But the extra hose was not necessary. The new hose fit perfectly and is secured with no drips at all. Hurrah!
Total cost: $8.67 🙂
Total time: 6 1/2 hours 🙁
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Here’s what the car looks like as of today.
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