308 Fuel Filler Hose Questions

I have been reading the threads on fuel filler hose problems in 308's. I also looked at the video (simple google search) of the fire on the yellow GTB last summer. An Fchatter named Dave showed a great photo of the cracked hose and mentioned that he had replaced it. I went out to my car (78 GTS Carb) and sure enough, it was almost identical to Dave's picture so...

Do I have to drain the tank to replace this hose?

If I drain the tank, is that good enough? Don't you still have trapped fumes that can cause an explosion?

If someone can point me to a detailed thread as to exactly how to do this job i.e what to move where, I would appreciate it. If there is no such thread and you have done it, It would be great if you could write a few lines down about how to do this.

Just finished the belts this weekend. Fun job with the A/C and all. I put the compressor in a box for later. I am eventually planning to replace all the fuel lines as that fella Chris has discussed but I really only want to do the high priority stuff first as we are getting closer to summer.

-Rjay

 

Here is a picture of the old hose.

-Rjay
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thank you Greg.

Bob

 

It is great seeing all the info. here. Gerrit, point well taken. I guess I know I have to do this so I am inspecting the 308 parts pdf tonight. I picked up a 1' section of NAPA 1055 as recommended by several folks in different threads. There was also a special clamp that was recommended and I am looking for those to understand, well, what makes them special over a stainless pipe clamp. So far, I see a chunk of hose on the crossover, in the picture, in the manual. I remember mistaking this for the cooling chunk of hose while looking under the car. There is a lot of frame in the way.

-Bob

 

I changed the fuel filler hose today. The red in the pictures is overspray from the previous owner’s paint job. (sorta embarrassing, like showing your dirty underwear!) Many thanks to Carl Rose for his very nicely photographed write up on how to replace a filler hose on a QV. Also thanks to the rest of you for all the tips.

As you can see from the pics, the 78’ GTS is a bit different than the QV. I followed Carl’s instructions – disconnect the battery (important here, because you will be right up against the two Marrelli coils and a bunch of wiring. Also a blanket was put down for no-spark tool drops. An added item, was a ground strap from the car to the third wire ground on an outlet close by. I then made sure that I would discharge any potential spark to a spot on the chassis toward the rear of the car and far enough from my work area (just touched a bolt with my hand). In Colorado, especially this time of year, you have to worry about electrostatic discharge and today it happened during my work.

Most of you guys know how to get the left rear shroud and wheel off to expose this area. On the 308 GTS, there is a welded bracket on the fuel filler that sticks out about 3”. You can see it high up in the picture. There is a hole in the end for a bolt that goes through the fuel filler baseplate. You can see the bolt head from the fuel filler door side too. The bolt comes out easily. There is a vapor hose w/clamp that has to be removed –also easy. The main two clamps come off easily too. You have good access from under and over now. The small vertical hose in the picture is for spillover and goes right out the lower fender to the ground. I peeled the old hose off with a few light slices with a razor knife and tearing the rest off by hand. Carl points out correctly that you really need to be careful here not to generate a spark i.e. metal on metal. The hose was obviously rotted but it had not gone all the way through (just a matter of time). Now here is where I diverged from the QV write up. Once the hose was gone, there was only about 1” between the filler assembly flange and the gas tank flange(my apologies for no picture here – I just forgot to snap one). Someone can correct me here but there was no way that the filler assembly was coming out the top or bottom that I could see. There is the 3” bracket welded to the thing along with the vapor nozzle (another 2”) in the way. I cut the new piece of NAPA 1055 hose to length. It was then soaked in hot tap water. I smeared the inside of each end with a tiny amount of Vaseline and took the warm hose out to the car. I angled the fuel filler assembly (it is loose because the bracket bolt has been removed giving you a bit of play). I then pushed the hose on by squeezing and wiggling between the gap of the two metal nozzles. It went on pretty easily. I forced it up as high as it would go but it still won’t clear the gap. I pushed the hose (warm and pliable between the gap) until it started to slide onto the lower lip. Last, there was a small section that was caught in the center of the gap and needed to be pulled over the lower pipe (gas tank) lip. I used a ¼” wood dowel (specifically, not metal) to pry the small part of the hose left and it popped over the lower pipe. Basically, I didn’t have clearance but really didn’t need it because I could work the warm hose in there. New clamps were installed and everything put back. I did pour gas into the tank when it was done by filling with a small canister held at different angles and then checked for any leaks before putting the wheel shroud back.

I just want to stress that I did smell gas as soon as the old hose tore off. My gauge read “empty” but I know there was still a fair amount of gas in there. I was worried a lot about this but I tried to be sooooo careful. I have a trouble light and I turned it off and there was nothing in the area that would cause a spark (that I could tell). I figured that this was analogous to having a 5 gallon open canister of gas while trying to work on the rubber gasket of the lid. I had certainly done that before and not been so darned nervous. The hose replacement part of this job only took about 20 minutes. I felt a lot better once the new hose and clamps were on. The whole job only took a couple of hours.

-Rjay
Image Unavailable, Please Login