Saturday evening I decided to go for a quick spin after completing a few minor tasks on Blackie that afternoon. It fired immediatly and died! Huh? Six more cycles of this and I checked the fuel pressure which was indicating a steady 0 psi. A peek down the gas tank filler neck reveals that it is indeed empty. At once, I think back to last Sunday when I had rebuilt the front end. Before I reattached the steering control arm cover (or whatever you call that piece of metal) I had noticed a small drop on a tank nipple nut. I made a mental note of if and decided to check it for tightness later. What else could it be? New sock, washer, lines, clamps and hoses. Besides, I was on to something bigger at that time. Could it have leaked that much in a week? No worrys. Out to the shed and back with a 2 gal can of gas. Pour it in, cap the tank, close the lid and........... nothing. No starty. No FP. I walk around the car and find my drive is soaked in 2 galllons of gas which was pouring from beneath the fuel tank. Whew! It was late and my wifes BD party was today which kept me busy all day so I did not get a chance to look into it. I'm interested to find what it is since every filter,OEM rubber hose, hose clamp or SS line is new. Except this plastic Y fitting seen in this pic. More to come.............
Click to view attachment

Hard to believe that the Y fitting could have been the culprit for draining two gallons of gasoline in your driveway that quickly.

You need to pull the tank. Something under it came undone, or you are going to find a nice rust hole in the tank.

Zach

So I pulled the tank and here is what greeted me. That will drain a tank quickly! In the second pic it is evident that the clamp is cinched up as tight as it will go. Verdict? Improperly sized hose clamp. This was the last clamp to go on before the tank was dropped onto it's rest so it was an easy repair. Just friggin embarassing .

Click to view attachment

Click to view attachment

I admire anyone willing to post embarrassing moments for the benefit of others to learn....

Check and check again. We lost two 914's to fire in the last couple weeks. This was your lucky day.

At least it was the the front trunk under the gas tank, and not in the engine bay Kent.. could've been a lot worse. Nice job finding the leak though!

Nah , not embarassing , that would have been when you called the fire dept. Personally I would double clamp where possible and replace that plastic Y with a brass T or similar metal fuel fittings. Look around different suppliers of parts , you should be able to come up with a viable solution. Good luck , and thanks for posting your findings -goes a long way to alerting others of the possibility of problems even with good parts.

Jack

you would have been veryupset if that was the case.! Dawn patrol?

same crap heppened to me the other day, and i remembered this post! Kent FTW

Nice find Kent...enjoy your trip to CO

Looking forward to Oct Dawn Patrol

Lew

Don't feel embarrassed about airing fuel leak problems. I agree with the others who've said that bringing the issue to light will hopefully prompt others to check their own fuel systems.

These are OLD cars, and old rubber parts on the fuel and braking systems NEED to be checked and replaced in almost all cases, especially the 'Barn Finds' that have been sitting for who knows how long


I recently found a fuel leak in front of the right rear tire of my '75. The car had been sitting idle since March of 2008. We found that an improperly blocked-off return line exiting the firewall was the culprit. After installing a new section of rubber hose with a plug and tightening up the clamps, we discovered another leak from under the tank up front (which by the way, had been recently removed to install a new fuel pump, new filter and new hoses)

We pulled the tank again, double-checked the fittings at the tank and trimmed 1/2" off all the [new] hose ends. This new leak was at the input port of the filter. Like your problem, the hose clamp didn't cinch down tight enough.

Before reinstalling the tank, we decided it would be much safer to block off the return line right at the fuel tank fitting and not have fuel sitting in the return line running through the tunnel any more.

Since we're running a low-pressure pump and carbs, we really didn't need the return line anyway. Even though the original plastic likes are in in pretty good condition, we'll be installing new S/S fuel lines the next time the drive train comes out (within the next few months).