Date:         Fri, 25 May 2007 17:48:28 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Subject:      A close call!
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

Today, cruising down the highway, thinking "Boy, this is great, the Van is running perfect.."  Old camaro in front, kinda beat..I smell raw gas, faintly.  I think..."Hmmm that guy has a fuel leak, wonder if he knows?"  Follow him for a few miles, still very faint gas smell, I check my own back trail...nothing odd or alarming...Then, I take my turn off and the Camaro keeps on straight...but the fuel smell is still there...."Uh Oh", I think, and start planning a strategy to deal with a fuel leak, if it's me...I glance at my gas gauge and note it is waaay down below where it should be...and dropping as I watch..."For sure, Uh Oh"...

  So I get off the bridge I am on, thinking about what I should grab first, if the van bursts into flames when I pull over..."Get right to the fire extinguisher", which is within reach, mounted behind the passenger seat, "and then, toss out your bicycle and your....."  You get the picture...  So I pull into a wide paved spot that truckers use  and shut down, jump out with the extinguisher and rush round to the slider...noting  a large gas puddle under the back....Grab the bike out (it costs more than the Vanagon)..and then I push the van ahead to get it from over the puddle...The gas flow has stopped with the motor shut off...I wait a few seconds while more drips down, then again push the van ahead....extinguisher in hand, fingers crossed...

  Cut to the chase, she didn't blow up or burn...why I have no idea..the fuel line between the pump and the injector log rubbed through and was spewing pressurized fuel right onto the exhaust headers for almost 5 miles of driving...It ejected a half a tank of fuel before I finally shut it off...Man, was I lucky!

  So, all you out there with "new" to you vans, be sure to check everything the P.O. has done..VERY carefully.  I went over the whole van a few times, looking for just such potential hazards, tugging on hose clamps, checking Zip ties, etc and thought I'd done a good job...And I thought, after seeing how stuff was done, that the Previous Owner had done good work...So perhaps I wasn't as careful as I should have been  as I did the whole check over deal...

  And yesterday, I was near the spot of the hose's rub-through, bleeding the clutch slave cylinder after a MC replacement..I may have pulled that hose somehow, putting it into contact with the sheet metal where it wore through. Who knows the exact sequence that caused the rupture..So, check around where you are working, after you accomplish whatever task you have, and make sure you haven't caused anything else to put you and your van into harms way...  And for sure, have a fire extinguisher that you can reach from the driver's seat as you exit the van...That's a Racecar drivers trick that has saved many a burning car...
  Don Hanson