Wagon Fuel Fill

[RLJ]

What have others done to deal with fuel fill parts no longer available for the wagon? Anybody come up with improvements to the stock configuration?

I've seen tank fills put in the floor of the cargo area. Would prefer to keep it all on the outside. 

 

Any body have the screw in panel for the floor to cover the sending unit on a stock tank? 

[KELMO]

Try to find content from Duncan on here. He has a wagon thread that covers a boat load of stuff. I cannot remember for sure if the fuel filler was part of it or not.

 

I bought a trailer of 510 wagon parts last November and I think I saw one of those covers amongst everything. I will take a look, but it will take some time. Some of the parts have been boxed up and some have not.

[Duncan]

I ended up using mandrel bent tubing to replace the rubber filler.  It was fairly simple, but the Calif smog nozzles on the gas pumps were still a messy, pain in the ass to put fuel into my wagon. 

 

I bought a filler neck and cap from tanks.inc and modified the tank.  Detail of that can be found here. Scroll down the page a bit to find the tank mods.. It worked great.

 

 

 

 

 

[RLJ]

Duncan,

Thanks to KELMO I’ve been reading your build thread and enjoying it. Lots of good info there. Just got to about page 30 and read you had NOS for the fill neck and molded plastic hose part. Now see that you eventually went to a relocated fuel fill. 

 

The PO of my car had a CF Express going on with the fill neck. Made a mess when getting fuel and always smelled gas. Way to dangerous to my taste!

 

Already using stuff from tanks, inc. Hoping to come up with a better fill neck idea to make fueling easier and less messy. Might have to clearance the inside panel for a better fill neck to work with the modern fuel nozzle. Really don’t want to have the fill inside the cargo area but have seen others do that besides you. 

 

Also still considering a fuel door set up either from a 510 sedan or aftermarket. Figured other Wagon owners have had to deal with this before me and might save from buying a bunch of wrong parts. 

 

Do you think the stock fill neck was the main problem when fueling? Or the design past the fuel neck going into the tank was also a problem causing fuel back up and spit out?

 

Thanks. Now back to reading your build thread. 

[Duncan]

That thread went on for 5-plus years and I lost three photo hosts, so there's a LOT of pics missing. 

 

I initially added a hot-rod fuel door from Hagen's Street Rods, so even though I had a NOS rubber fuel line, I couldn't use it.  I used a couple of mandrel-bent ninety degree bends and some straight rubber fuel pieces to route it to the tank, and it worked fine as far as that went.  The problem was the quick 90 degree instant downward angle with the Cal smog boot on the gas nozzle caused it to be as bad (if not worse) than the factory filler.  I had to hold the gas pump to pump as slow as it would go, and it was still kicking off and spilling gas down the side of my wagon.  

 

I'll look, but I did put up pics of the tubing I used.  I'll see if I can find them.  It actually pretty simple, and way better than the factory rubber piece, but I still had the fill problems.  

 

 

 

 

[Duncan]

Here's the filler door I used.  It looked good, but quality was iffy at best.  People seem to use these on high dollar street rods, but I don't know why.  Poorly made.

 

 

Here's the only shot I could find of my home made filler tube.  Now that I think about it, the metal tube is straight, and I went to the parts store and bought a 2.5" rubber fuel hose with a 90 degree bend to get to the tank.  

 

 

I don't remember exactly how it would apply to the stock stuff, but this is what I used on mine.  Hope it helps..

 

I ended up with two fillers on my tank with no problems.  Even though I filled through the hatch, both the tank and filler were below the cargo floor. There were no vapor problems, and I was just careful handling the nozzle so there were no spills or drips..

 

 

 

[RLJ]

Saw those magnetic door fuel fills and considering one. 

 

Did that set up in the picture work without filling problems? Looks like the nozzle should go in easy and not have any problem with fueling? How was the fit of the nozzle and vapor rubber on the nozzle going in through the door of the fuel fill?

[Duncan]

12 hours ago, RLJ said:

Saw those magnetic door fuel fills and considering one. 

 

Did that set up in the picture work without filling problems? Looks like the nozzle should go in easy and not have any problem with fueling? How was the fit of the nozzle and vapor rubber on the nozzle going in through the door of the fuel fill?

 

 

This setup was as bad as the stock setup.  I added the fuel door because I hated the look of the gas cap on the wagon.  I was hoping this would also make the fueling a little better, but it did not.  I still had to go painfully slow when adding fuel, and it still spilled down the side of the car on my new paint.

 

My neighbor has a 70's BMW 2002 and had the same filling problems.  The 2002 guys add a second filler to the tank in the trunk.  It's a very common mod for them, and that's where I got the idea.

 

 

[yenpit]

I think I have that cover plate on the floor......PM if interested!

 

I had a Subbie Impreza that eventually started spitting fuel out of the filler neck during fill up.  Turned out to be a broken wire going to a venting solenoid that opened when filling up the fuel.  This allowed the air in the tank to escape, while the fuel flowed down the tube & filled the tank up.  No solenoid, the air could only try to escape thru the main fill tube, which was flowing full of fuel!  That caused a "belch", which caused the fuel to kick back & spit out the only way it could.......out the fuel filler neck on to my SHOES!!! 😣  Fixed the broken solenoid wire, all good!  That said, our Datsun's don't have a fuel solenoid, only a "mechanical" means of venting the air OUT of the tank as the fuel is being poured in.  If that vent is blocked or plugged up by a big dummy, the fuel will spit out just like my Subbie. 

[yenpit]

I don't have any 510 Sedan fuel filler "cup assemblies", where the filler neck is.  I do have a Z car "cup assembly" that I can cut out of the rear 1/4 panel, with the fuel door/lid & the upper metal fuel filler neck where the gas cap goes (I don't think I have the correct Z gas cap).  I think all of the Z car rubber elbows etc are being reproduced.........??  The Z car makes a similar quick 90deg turn down (the 510 Sedan does NOT) like the Goon.  We don't do custom body work like that here at work, so these are only ideas!