Fuel tank vent

I'm confused about the position of the vent line as it passes through the clip on the filler flange. on drawing 16A, section A-A it shows the vent line up against the top skin. However, in Figure 7-9 the picture shows the clip above the filler flange. What is the right way to do this?

Fuel Tank Vent Line Position

Ray,

Here are a few quick scans from my plans. (See Section E-E) The clip position appears to be correct on this drawing. The vent line will be above the bottom of the filler neck and the clip will be riveted below the flange on the forward side. I hope his helps. --Chuck

I'm not sure what the "right" way to do it is, but here's how I did mine. I made the clip exactly per the full size detail on the plans, then used a technique I saw either on these forums or someone's build log to bend the end up: take a 1/4" combination wrench and put the open end on the end of the vent tube, put a screwdriver through the box end and bend the end of the tube until it's as close to the high point in the tank as you can get it.

Here's my results. I wish I'd made my vent line about a quarter to half inch longer, but it's still well above and outboard of the bottom of the filler flange.

Chuck,

The third picture, where the vent is shown against the skin is the point of contention.

Longranger,

I finally decided that close to the skin is probably good enough. I haven't done the final bend yet, but I think it will end up being below the edge of the flange. Maybe about 1/4" from the skin.

I had a little trouble getting the vent line bent the way that I wanted it. It would have been nice if they would have mentioned the vent line installation in the instructions. I went back and looked for that step, nothing. I had already installed the outboard rib, but I was able to make it work. But I realized I might have installed the inboard rib and been in big trouble.

I just did my left tank vent tube installation as well and agree the plan narrative is entirely lacking in detail about it. I always read well ahead to plan for gotchas like this, and a passing reference does come up after installation of the inboard rib is described. The plan diagram is quite clear though on what it should look like, and I checked a bunch of builder sites to see how it was done. I pushed mine up against the skin as well to achieve as high a point in the tank as possible.

Fuel Tank Vent

Good stuff! You guys are about two batches of ProSeal ahead of me.

Think about WHY there's a vent tube, and the best placement of it will be obvious.