DeTomaso Mailing List: July 97, Message #36
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All, I sent this out yesterday and it apparently vanished, for I never saw it come back. Here it is again; if it's redundant, well, call me Mad Dog... Mike --------------------- Forwarded message: Subj: Re: Gas nozzle kick-off Date: 97-07-02 02:17:56 EDT From: MikeLDrew To: DeTomaso@wgate.com Capt Mike Drew 150 Westgate Dr. San Francisco, CA 94127 Home: (415) 334-7860 E-mail: MikeLDrew@aol.com Hello all, A VERY frustrated Tom Padula wrote: >Once again, I worked the gas pump nozzle bellows around the various bits on the filler of my car (it's a '74, with the usual filler on the finned sail panel). Once again, I had to hold the trigger by hand and try to fill the tank vvvveeeerrrryyyy ssssllloooowwwlllyyy to try to keep the nozzle from kicking off. This time, I gave up at half a tank after the tank backsplashed twice and had kicked off at least a dozen times. [snip] So: since (a) this obviously isn't happening to everyone, and (b) I do have some vague clue how to operate a gas pump, what's wrong with my car? I've looked through the orange parts book for exploded diagrams of the gas tank and such, but I don't see anything on my car that looks like it could be a vent (which could be plugged). >>>Right idea, wrong book. Check out page 31-32 of the DeTomaso factory parts book, parts number 11-16. >Is there supposed to be a tank vent of some kind? Where is it, what's it look like, is this a common problem? Any other theories? >>>The gas tank has a vent; the hose from this vent runs clear across to the passenger side of the car, where there's a charcoal canister. Another (larger) hose then runs from this canister to the stock air cleaner. Since your car is a Euro car, with superchargers, maybe somebody elected to trash the canister, and at the same time, trash the vent. It's located outboard of the fuel pickup, atop the tank, very hidden from view by the decorative panel. If your hole is plugged, since you're in the Bay Area, I know Larry Stock has several used tanks (one of them comprehensively bashed up) that have decent vents that you could buy. >Of course, maybe my assumptions are off. Is this happening to everybody in California, or do I just not know how to use a gas pump? >>>As a matter of fact, you're right. You don't know how to use a gas pump. :>) I recently learned of the proper technique when I drove John Colombero's Pantera (a '72L with a later-style fuel filler) to Las Vegas. I tried to fill the tank the same way you are, and got nowhere, the thing kicked off almost immediately. "No, no, no...you're doing it all wrong!" John told me. "You've got to hold the fuel nozzle UPSIDE DOWN." It sounded pretty unlikely to me, but I dutifully flipped it over, squeezed the lever, and proceeded to fill the tank to the absolute max without it ever kicking off again, until absolutely full. I have no idea why this works. But at least on HIS car, work it does. Give it a try! -Mike, also veteran of many busted knuckles, similarly not proud about being confounded by a stinking _gas_pump_... ==============================================================================