MGB - fuel tank R, R & R

Today's post covers the Removal, Refresh and Re-install of the fuel tank. The tank was removed for safety concerns while welding in new floor pans. I discovered, though, that there was a tiny leak at the rear and I had concerns about the viability of the fuel level float/sensor.

Standard Safety Precautions
Like any job, block your wheels, put it up on jack stands if you can't work on it while it's on it's wheels. Since you're working with fuel, at the very least make sure your garage doors are open with a fan blowing on your work area or better yet do this job outside. Obviously, don't smoke or have your friends/kids/wife playing with a welder or blow torch while you're doing this. I'm not your mom, so if you choose to slide under your car without eye or face protection, that's entirely up to you. Personally, I like being able to see things like sunsets and my wife's face, so I wear at least safety glasses, if not a full face shield anytime I'm working on a car. Honestly, the number of times I brain myself on my car has me thinking about wearing a hardhat too.

Free Your Lines
Fuel tanks are all very similar: there's a big hose to get fuel in from the pump, a small hose to supply the engine with fuel and there are vents (at least one) on the top that have lines that lead up to the engine (after routing through charcoal or something) for inclusion into the air that the engine uses at combustion time. On fuel-injected vehicles, there is an additional line for a return from the engine. When the engine doesn't require all of the fuel that the system has pressurized, like when you're decelerating, the excess flows down that fuel line back into the tank. So, once you know what you're looking for, you need to remove them from your tank before you remove the tank itself. First, remove the vent lines. these may not be the easiest to get to, but they will definitely NOT have fuel in them, so you shouldn't need a pan. Make note of where the rubber hose came from when you set it aside. You'll want to cut a replacement that's the right diameter and length at install-time.

before

Now, grab a pan. This is gonna get messy. Hopefully, you knew this day was coming and you already ran the tank to as close to empty as you could before you got to this point. If you have a full tank, this will take a while. Lying under your fuel tank, consider the rubber hose leading out of it. The VW bus was "gravity fed", meaning that the outlet is at the lowest point of the tank. Gravity sent the fuel to the outlet. This is one of the biggest fire hazards in the bus. If the fuel line ruptures, the tank will empty through that outlet right on top of the passenger-side heater box and axle. In the MG, like most cars, the fuel is not gravity fed, rather the fuel is pulled from the tank by a pump. This means that in order to drain the tank you'll need to create suction. I guess you could wire the pump to run the fuel into a pan... Regardless, there is fuel in that supply line, so slide the pan under the connection where the rubber meets the metal line that runs to the front of the car. Remove the rubber line at that connection and allow the fuel to drain out of both the metal line and the rubber line into your pan. There shouldn't be much fuel in either.

trunk underside - before

Now the fun part. We are going to siphon out the fuel with a MityVac. Set your MityVac up so that there is the liquid catch-bottle between the hand-pump (vacuum creator) and the rubber line. Create vacuum until fuel is dripping into the catch bottle and then pinch the rubber line with a pair of pliers. Remove the rubber line from the MityVac catch-bottle, and point it at your catch pan. Hold the end of the rubber line below the lowest point of the tank (and into the pan) and remove the pliers. Fuel should pour from the line into your pan until either your pan overflows or the fuel level in your tank meets the top edge of the outlet inside the tank. Wrap the end of the hose with plastic wrap so it doesn't drip all over you during the drop step. If you have a drain for your tank, slide your pan under the drain and remove the drain plug. These tend to send fuel all over the place when the tank has a lot of fuel in it, so it's best to siphon as much as you can before you open the drain. Ask me how I know :)

Last, remove the filler hose. In the MGB, this was the easiest part. The filler hose runs from the rear next to the passenger tail light through the trunk and into the top of the fuel tank. It is secured with a simple, albeit big, hose clamp.

Unwired
Before you can drop the tank, disconnect the wires from the fuel level sender. Depending on the car, the fuel level could have both a signal wire and a ground -OR- it may only have a signal wire. This means that the sender gets it's voltage difference basis from a ground through the tank itself. If this is you, consider a means of improving that ground, especially if your fuel level gauge is a little flighty, like mine.

Tank Out
This is the fun, satisfying part. I put my ATV jack under my tank to support it while I removed the nuts and bolts. Since there will inevitably be some fuel left in the tank after siphoning, you don't want that weight bearing on the fasteners, and then have the tank suddenly drop when the last one comes free. Some tanks are held on with a pair of straps. My old Camaro was like that, and many older American cars are too. These come off with a couple of bolts. The MGB tank is held on with nuts/bolts around the outside lip where the top and bottom sections of the tank come together. In total, there were 9 fasteners: four along the one side, 3 along the other, 2 across the rear. I guess the engineers couldn't make up their minds and be consistent. The ones in the rear can be a little tricky to get to. Once out, the rear edge of the tank can get hung up above the bumper so tilt the front down first and slide forward.

Drain, Clean and Dry
Once on the ground, remove the fuel level sensor. On the MG, it is held on with a spin-on ring that lets go after a couple of taps with a hammer. Set the sensor aside for testing, and then drain the remainder of the fuel through either the fill hole or the fuel level sensor hole. Depending on how old the gas was, you may need to recycle what is now in your catch-pan. Mine was relatively fresh so I used it in my lawnmower.

At this point, I refer to my friends at Mac's Radiator. They cleaned, lined and painted the tank for the bus a few years ago, and I want the same treatment for the MGB. For about $300, your original tank is better than new, you don't have to pay oversized shipping, you know it will fit and best of all... its a genuine shipped-with-the-car original part. In the MGB case, you can no longer buy a true original. The aftermarket tanks generally don't have splash baffles (prevents the fuel from sloshing around when you corner), and some don't have vents. They aren't lined (so they may start rusting from the inside) and they are of inferior, thinner steel. Still, I did find one for $170 plus shipping that "are made with corrosion resistant Ni Terne steel to fight of rust and ethanol fuel". This is from a less-than-best distributor here in Oregon (poor return policy), British Parts Northwest, and again, it isn't lined. Part link here. Of course, good work isn't fast, so it will be a couple of weeks of waiting before I have it back, ready to install.

While your tank is at the radiator shop, test the fuel level sender. Rather than re-hash, here is a fantastic article for testing and calibrating the fuel sender and gauge. My float would not give a consistent reading below about 100ohm (or from a half tank to full tank), so it will be replaced.

Parts
The parts list is actually longer than I had anticipated. Looking at the picture above, the newer shaped tank is on the right. It bolts up directly under the trunk, so rather than having steel on steel, there are foam "straps" that fit between. There should also be a seal around the edge of the filler neck. Add the fuel-level sender. I also added in a new sender seal and locking ring. Of course, I'll be using all new 5/16" fasteners and rubber lines from the tank to vent and engine fuel-supply. Once assembled, everything related to the fuel tank and supply to the engine will be refreshed.

Placement Prep

trunk underside - after

So, the tank is out and off to the radiator shop. We're waiting for parts. Ugh. I hate the waiting part. To make the most of the delay, I grabbed my face shield, my angle grinder and a wire-wheel attachment and set to clean up the underside of the trunk. Before I got down to it, I shot the surface with Simple Green and a scrub brush. That's all it took. I hosed it off, and it didn't need any additional prep. I could have ground off the undercoating, but there was no need. So, I just shot it with some paint to help it last longer. Even though no one will ever see it, it sure looked pretty when it was done. I did a bunch of clean-up on the trunk floor and the rear bulkhead at this point as well. I'll post on that later, if I remember to.

Tank Prep
When the tank is returned from the radiator shop, it should have a protective coat of paint, but if your shop is anything like Mac's, they highly recommend a thicker, more protective coating. So, sand an edge into their paint, then prime, sand, wipe and paint with a suitable topcoat. Since this is not going to be seen, this doesn't need to be the expensive body paint, but something chip-resistant makes sense, since it will be exposed to the road. Once cured, install the level sender with the new seal, making sure the fuel pick-up tube is pointing toward to bottom of the tank.

after

If you got the new fastener pack, it includes little clip-on bits that act as an a-fixed nut on the tank for the loose bolts that are placed from the trunk. Be mindful to put the new ones where the old ones were removed. Not all of the mounting holes should have these clips. Some of the connections are with welded-in studs hanging down from the underside of the trunk so if you don't get the clips in the right holes, you won't be able to install. This is one of those "a picture is worth a thousand words" moments. See the blue tape in the picture for reference.

Since the steel tank sits up against a steel trunk floor, the MGB was originally outfitted with foam strips to set between. As you can see by the parts picture above, these foam strips run front to back. They are purchased as a roll and need to be cut-to-fit., It is very possible that you could save a few bucks and get basic home insulation strips at a big box store. The parts vendors assure me that the real deal are gasoline resistant, so the extra few dollars are worth it. Your choice. I bought the real parts since I was getting a bunch of other stuff anyway.

Last, set the foam collar around the fuel filler inlet. This needs to be in-place before the tank is installed.

Tank In

With new fasteners in hand, set the tank back on the ATV jack, roll it under the trunk and raise it close to where it will reside. Remember that the rear-end of the tank tends to hang-up, so tilt the tank so the rear end installs first. There are two studs on either side that are permanently attached to the trunk floor. Use these to center your tank, and lightly finger the nuts on (after the washers, of course). Now, you can drop the 5 loose bolts through the other holes in the trunk, making sure to include the large washers (first one nylon then one steel) between the bolt-head and the trunk floor. These will line-up with the clip-on bit/nut things. In my case, the clip-on nuts on the rear of the tank slipped on install so I had to poke at them with a long screwdriver to get them to line up with the holes. Take care as you tighten things back down, making sure that the foam strips do prevent steel-to-steel contact.

Re-Connections

the contrast between new and old

Using new rubber hose, re-connect the tank outlet with the steel fuel-feed line. Then re-connect the return line (if you have one), the vent lines and the big fuel hose. Last, reconnect the fuel level sender wire(s). Make sure you didn't leave anything disconnected, like the drain or one of the fuel-carrying lines. If you haven't looked at the hoses under the hood, now is the perfect time to do it. I found that the hoses near the tank were relatively new (PO replaced the fuel pump), but the lines under the hood were stiff and ready for replacement. After a final once over, put in some fuel, test fire the fuel pump a few times to prime the fuel line and you should be good to go.

That's it for today. I only got after the fuel system because I had to do some welding, but I'm glad I did. Rust hides. If you don't get into the little crevices, you won't see what's growing until it's too late. The top of the tank looked horrible, but once the rust was arrested, the remaining steel was thick enough to last another 40 years. As always, thanks for following along-

MGB - master cylinders (Part 3)

Today, we finish up the master cylinders in the MGB. In Part 1, we removed the old ones, complete with the pedal box and pedals. In Part 2, I covered disassembly, parts and re-assembly. Today, we'll get everything back together again. When we left off, the pedal box was put back together with the brake booster on one end and the clutch master cylinder (MC) on the other. The box is hovering over the hole in the engine bay where the pedals dangle into the driver footwell.

Box Seal

wrestling in the pedal box

Once the pedals were over the hole, I loosened the clutch pedal pivot bolt and pulled it partway out, testing for enough play to fit the pedals through the hole as I did. Once the pedals made it through, I pushed the bolt back into place and tightened it down. With some twisting, (and moving the heater hose out of the way), the box dropped into place.

Getting the box in-place is the hard part. Of course, I got my box as far as I described above and then realized that I hadn't gotten my bottom seal in. To get it in, I sent it from below, stretching it around the pedals and then fiddling with it to get it in the right spot to seal. Frankly, I think I was sent the wrong seal (it is square, the hole is not), but it will work well enough.

Bolting the Banjo

brake calipers - before

While you still have freedom of movement, pull the shipping plug from the clutch MC and attach the banjo bolt. If your new clutch MC was like mine, it did not come with a new banjo bolt, fitting or copper washers. You'll need to re-use your old ones. The banjo bolt and fitting clean up with steel wool. Be sure to get all the little steelie bits out/off before you install. I used brake cleaner after polishing. Also, the copper washers need to be annealed for them to make a good seal. To do that, you need to get them red hot: hold with needle-nose pliers and torch with a propane torch. Once cool, and the brake cleaner wiped and dried, assemble the banjo bolt, fitting and copper washers into the rear of the master cylinder. Tighten down with a 1/2". Unlike the banjo bolt nightmare I had with the steering rack on the Jetta, this was cake.

Wrap the end of the clutch hard-line with plumbers tape and thread it into the fitting. Tighten with a brake flare wrench. I was able to use my 12mm from my VW tools.

Box Final Install
Now, you can attach the pedal box to the car. I started by lining up the holes I could see from above, and loosely threading the bolts in, then moving inside the car (on my back) to get the three from the driver foot-well. Last, I did the 2 that thread in from behind the dashboard. Times like these serve as a great reminder to loosely thread in ALL of the bolts before you tighten any. I, of course, continue to need to learn that, so I had to loosen many bolts in order to get those last two in. Then, tighten them all down.

Last, loop the return springs around their respective holes in the pedal shaft and connect the other end to the underside of the dashboard. I've found that the pedals rebound well without these, but I'm sure the engineers wouldn't have put them in if they weren't necessary... so... I put them back.

Finish Clutch Master Cylinder

clutch MC is hard to reach

Box in? check. Pedals tight? check. Clutch MC plumbed? check. Next, we finish off the clutch master cylinder with DOT4 brake fluid. This sounds simple enough: put fluid in the metal can. Because of it's location up against the firewall, nearest the left-side bonnet hinge, getting a jug or even a really tiny bottle, of brake fluid in a place to pour it is virtually impossible. I imagine the bigger shops, or a place where you have a couple extra pairs of hands and some safe part storage, the bonnet is pulled waaay earlier, so it's not as big of a hassle. No matter. We're inventive. I dug through my old bio-diesel stuff and found a 10ml plastic syringe. With is, I was able to draw fluid from the bottle and add to the metal can without getting a single drop anywhere else.

If you use the syringe on a new master cylinder, expect to add at least 40ml. I filled until I could see the top of the fluid near the lip. Then, I put the cap back on, pumped the clutch pedal like mad and repeated. At one point, I figured out that I could move the master cylinder with a spanner through the top of the pedal box, so I didn't need to move around to get the MC primed. After about 5 syringes, the MC started to give good resistance. I moved to the cabin and worked the pedal with my foot, noting that the car moved in and out of gear with the pedal movement. I topped off the fluid, and called it good. A driveway test drive should shake any little bubbles free.

Prepare Brakes

VHT paint drying

Some like painted calipers. Some don't. Since yucky stuff gets onto surfaces, and looks worse when the yuck is on top of something light colored (like battleship gray unpainted steel calipers), I prefer black. Since I had the calipers off to do the front end rebuild (see parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 if you haven't already), they were ready for paint with very little extra work. For anyone else, you need to remove the calipers, disconnect the brake lines, etc. To me, that's just too much work unless you were in there to do a brake job anyway. I pulled the flexible brake line and pads, taped off the bleeder, plugged the brake line hole and scrubbed them with steel wool. The PO had shot them with some red paint that didn't adhere too well, so that needed to have an edge for the new paint to grip. Feeling the difference on the painted versus unpainted was interesting: the unpainted had a grain that gunk was attaching to where the painted side didn't. As a result, the paint, while not too good, still kept junk from caking on there. Food for thought. Anyway, after they were scrubbed, I blew them out with compressed air and them sprayed them down with brake cleaner to get any little bits of steel wool dust off. After they dried, I wiped them down with some mineral spirits, suspended them with bailing wire and shot them with VHT (very high temperature) flat black paint. They fully cure at 200*, but the off-gassing that happens when you bake-cure makes an oven unusable for anything else again. So, I decided I would let them cure through use. I'll just have to remember that they will smell a little bit the first time I drive on them, so I don't freak out.

Sew it Up
Once dry, pull the tape and brake line plug, re-assemble the pads and retainer bits. Thread the flexible brake hose back in, and install the calipers back onto their respective swivels. If you can't remember which is which, consider that the brake bleeder bolt should point up (so the air bubbles can work their way out). Thread the flexible hose into the hard lines and check your wheel movement isn't compromised by the brake lines. I've never had this be an issue, but my experience is limited compared to others, so maybe this is a thing. I figure it's always better to be careful and have all of your surprises be pleasant ones.

a little scrubbing goes a long way

There are a few little mop-up things to do. The pedal box cover needs to be put back on. This takes 1/2" #6 sheet metal screws. I recommend replacing the seal that sits beneath, if yours is original. Or missing. Bleed the brakes with the MityVac. Verify the hand brake works. And last, give it a test drive. I haven't gotten to that last part yet, since I still need to get the fuel tank in. Oh, and I need to do something with the cooling system. I'll get to those here shortly, and post soon after that. I know I'm running against time, if I want to get a drive in before the weather changes to solid rain as it does here in the fall. We usually have until right around Columbus Day, but the clouds we've seen lately lead me to believe that the weather will shift early this year. We'll see.

As always, thanks for following along.

Flappin Door

When we take our trips in Hapy, we always note something that needs to get fixed. Sometimes, we write those things down and eventually we get around to fixing them. Today, I touch on two little things that I fixed after we got back from Chinook Fest. I knew the rains were coming, and I wanted the cover on the bus before they arrived. That left me a couple of sunny hours, so I got after these two items.

Fuel Flap

Every time I fill up, I am reminded that when I prepped the bus for paint a few years ago, I pulled the little rubber bits out. Those little bits prevent the fuel filler flap from banging against the side of the bus when you close it. They also prevent the inevitable rattle from steel-on-steel, aggravated by a shaky diesel engine at idle. I can't really hear it over all the other things that rattle, but I was at Ace Hardware anyway, getting a random assortment of fasteners for the MGB and some other home stuff. The Ace in the Pearl District has one of the better spreads of random little things. Maybe they felt the competition from Winks back when they were on the west side.

Regardless, I found a couple of these little ribber bits intended for a US domestic car. For the $2 price, it was worth the risk. This is all the more true when I was unable to locate the "real" part on my usual websites. With a small slotted screw-driver, I pinched the rubber and slid it into the little hole. It took all of 5 minutes. I find it really funny how many of the little issues can be solved that quickly.

Driver Door Latch

When I bought this bus all those years ago, the door seals were shot. I bought replacements, and thought I was getting the "good" ones, based on what I had learned from the bus owners Yahoo email list. Either I bought the wrong ones or installed them incorrectly or both. Either way, the doors needed more effort to close than they should have. Fast forward to when I did the repaint, and I replaced the seals with the actually "good" ones, that are a little smaller than the not-as-good ones. The door seals much better, but years of banging the door shut had done it's damage.

The door became less and less responsive. First, if I locked the door with the key and then fiddled with the opening latch on the outside, it simply wouldn't open with the outside latch for a while. This lasted for a couple of years, but on our last trip, the door wouldn't open from the outside at all. From the inside, it would open, but it wouldn't stay latched consistently. Sometimes it would latch with a very calm closing and other times I had to slam it. Once, it popped open on me while driving. So, when we got home, I was driven to replace the latch. So, I contacted my friend Ken at TheBusCo, of course. He said he could sell me one, but I would probably get just as far simply cleaning and fixing mine, He was right. Thanks Ken! The procedure I followed is below.

Door Mechanism Remove
Open the door, raise the window all the way up.
Remove the door pull, window crank and finger guard around the inner door latch with a Phillips screwdriver.
Pull off the inner door skin and peel back the vapor barrier exposing the rear.
With a 10mm socket, remove the bolt holding the bottom of the rear window channel. You can get to it through the rectangular vent hole.
Remove the inner latch with the 10mm socket, and detach the metal door activator bar thing that runs back to the mechanism.
With a long flathead screwdriver, pull the activator bar out of the door mechanism.
Grab an Allen wrench and remove the outer door handle. My Allen's aren't size-marked, but it is a common wrench you'll find in your standard small set.
Rotate the door latch so that the "C" points down.
With a thick Phillips screwdriver, remove the 2 bolts that points rearward and the one that points inward which hold the latch mechanism to the door.
The latch mechanism should now be free to remove. Push the latch into the door and wiggle it downward. I had to press the window channel towards the outside to get the latch free.

Wait, What?
Once free, I noticed how filthy the latch was. I shot it with brake cleaner, worked the mechanism a few times and repeated until the latch worked without hesitation. Once it dried, I shot the pivot points with a WD-40 product to keep them lubricated. Everything worked great, but one bit of metal was bouncing around. Then, I noticed that the return spring for the outer latch was broken. This could be why the door wouldn't latch: the mechanism wouldn't close all the way. The right way to fix this would be to find the right spring and fit it into the mechanism like the original. Since it took me about 10 minutes to get the mechanism out, and I didn't have the spring, nor the time to go hunting through a hardware store to find one, I pulled a cursed PO move and went rogue. I grabbed a rubber band instead. Yeah, that's right. A rubber band. My thinking is that the rubber band could last a few years or it could last until next summer. Either way, I'll look for the spring, like I looked for the rubber bits for the fuel flap, and I'll do it right when I find it.

Reinstall
The reinstall is faster than the removal. Return the door latch so that the "C" points down and slide it up and into place. Thread the Phillips-head bolts in and attach the activation bar to the mechanism. Tighten the bolts enough for you to test the activation bar. Test that the latch springs open when the bar is pulled towards the front. Good? Awesome. Continuing, tighten those Phillips-head bolts, then re-attach the outer door handle. Hook the inner latch handle to the activation bar. Then, grab the 10mm socket, attach the inner handle and re-attach the window channel. The hard part is done. I tested the mechanism by rotating the latch, and working the different handles. Once I was satisfied, I lightly closed the door and it latched. Hazah! With a light tug on the outer handle, the door opened. Perfect!
Re-situate the vapor barrier and then fit the inner door skin. Re-attach the window crank, the finger guard and door pull with your Phillips screwdriver, and you're done!

That's it for today. I'll post back when the rubber band breaks, or when I replace it with a spring. Whichever comes first. Thanks, as always, for following along.