Screen in Gas Tank Removal

[alfatodd]

Hi All!

I've got an '81 with fuel injection that has been giving me surging problems. Please do not attempt to diagnose this because I have already tried about 20 different things and I have recently(with Jim Keller's help) narrowed it down to a clogged screen in my gas tank. My question is, does anyone have experience with locating and removing this screen? Can you offer any tips? I'm having trouble seeing it through my gauge sender hole let alone punching it out and removing it. Any help would be much appreciated because I've been working on this car on and off for 2 years now to get it running right. Will, don't even try to say it's something else...ha, ha, haaaaaaaaaaaa!

Thanks,

Todd

[RickyJ]

Hi Todd

I had a similar problem after I had my tank refurbed by a "professional" tank repair company. When they coated the inside of the tank they rather helpfully coated the pickup filter as well. Result - Car would start and run for 20 seconds and then die. Took me ages to track down the problem after trying different fuel pumps/running fuel hose straight from the tank to carb e.t.c.

As far as I know the Tank on my VX is the same as an IE and these differ from carb betas in that they have a swirl pot and filter in them. I've heard people talk about sticking a long thin piece of wood inside the tank and using a hammer to knock the filter off - In practise I was a bit loath to do this after having spent £200 having the tank refinished and more importantly not being able to see what I was supposed to be hitting!

I did manage to get some pictures of the inside of the tank which I'll try and dig out for you - Essentially the filter is mounted vertically about 2 inches underneath where the fuel sender hole is. It's made up of a piece of very fine guaze wrapped round a perforated cylinder. What I did was to stick a screwdriver into the sender hole and prize the "mesh" off of the cylinder. I then used a piece of mesh cut to the right depth and wrapped it round the perforated bit and fastened it with a metal tie. Will try and post some picstures if I can find them as it DOES help to be able to see what you're looking for.

Richard

[RickyJ]

Picture of filter:

[Allen Lofland]

On my 81 and 82 zagato"s I simply removed the sender unit, inserted a long bent nose pair of needle nose and grabbed the screen firmly and ripped it up the best i could. I managed to remove a piece about the size of a half dollar US mint :)
Then I re-routed the fuel line to the trunk from the tank to a metal in line filter and then back to the fuel pump. Works great for many miles and many years :) I change the trunk mounted METAL fuel filter every 6 months just for fun , never had a another problem.