DIY solution to kinked fuel breather hose

bluejon

Club Member
I decided to have a bit of an explore under the car to investigate petrol smells. Not those during driving, but a distinct smell I get when opening the garage door. Maybe it maybe not connected with this, I found a tightly kinked breather hose from the petrol tank ... the shorter of the two that has to make a tight turn on it's exit from the tank before rising through behind the taillight panel

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Whether this is a cause or contributing factor to the smells I'm not sure, but it's clearly not as it should be.

Here is one solution - it requires removal of the entire tank and the install of a new pipe with the addition of a spring inserted to maintain some outward pressure on the curvature of the pipe bend:
http://woodworkerb.com/home/datsun-240z-rebuild/240z-fuel-tank/

I came up with another fix. Happened to have a hose holder off the back of a washing machine. I've got couple of these never used ... I guess you might have one knocking around too, or if not it's just a very cheap visit to your nearby hardware shop.

Here it is installed :thumbs:
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Plenty of attempts failed. It's not an easy job. It ultimately took a little trimming to make it easier to fit, plus you can only work with one hand by feel. And that's if you can even get in there in the first place between the tank and the bodywork sill. Its tight and Ive got bruises. Those of you with big hands or meaty forearms won't manage I'd say.

But I like the end result after a couple of hours battle and nothing beats a low cost DIY innovation.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
Well done Jon. Great DIY fix, and for pennies as well, makes a change - they usually end up costing, well mine do! I want to get under the back of mine and have a good look around, I don't think the tank has ever been off ... the site you linked to is pretty good for these DIY mods and how-tos - I've discussed a couple of things with the guy as well, he's pretty savvy.
 

Jimbo

1978 260z in yellow
Club Member
great idea!
i wish i had thought of that, i ended up putting the largest bore fuel pipe i could find inside the bore of the breather pipe which stopped it kinking although restricts the id bore to 10mm i think.
 

Mr.G

Club Member
Nice and innovative solution John! And even better when you find the parts laying around at home.

I've used the uni coil, not a bad solution if the tank is already out.
 

bluejon

Club Member
As a further guide, here is another of what I used. The one installed is black, but both I happened to have in the cupboard were of identical size so I think they are relatively uniform. The diameter of the housing very closely matches that of the fuel breather hose.
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I've marked in red where I trimmed the unit - at the top to remove the fixing flange. And a small trim to the section that clip around the hose to remove the pointed ends - rounding them off makes it much easier to get the plastic around the fuel hose. :thumbs:

One thing I noticed on this white version is that is has some reinforcing ribs around the ends which makes this example a lot hard to bend. You can just see them marked in green. The black one I installed didn't have these ribs and was more flexible so I recommend going non-ribbed for pleasure :rofl:
 
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