Gas Cap Crud: Or Cleaning
Yesterday, finished the yearly inspection. My mechanic was listening when I mentioned found some junk in my left fuel tank.
It wasn't slosh! It was corrosion from my fuel caps; This post is what I found and how I fixed it.
At the start of the thread mentioned the lube for the caps. Well Dale educated me on fuel caps! Learned allot here on VAF, push the pin was a big help! However the reason why you need to push it down is corrosion has set in.
Dale told me that the little o-ring does not stop water from getting into the parts of the cap. Even if just outside in one rain fall you will have nasty stuff building up.
When learning to weld aluminum, the first step is too clean and then re-clean the areas to be welded. Just don't clean too much at a time. Air starts the corrosion process on aluminum as soon as you clean it.
The corrosion layer actually protects the aluminum.
To clean aluminum you will want a Stainless steel brush. Carbon steel creates a different kind of corrosion that isn't good for aluminum.
SS brush and a good Stainless Steel gun cleaning brush too. I used a .40CAL one. It fit perfect for cleaning the inside of the cap pieces where the SS shaft resides.
Safety glasses will keep the mess out of your eyes and the Acetone used to help clean.
The process takes 30-45 minutes per cap for a good thorough cleaning.
Here are some photos showing the breakdown and what you will be cleaning.
Please note, Dale as he was leaving for his normal place of work, mentioned, "Better leave before you break your cap". Thinking about this didn't stop the Neanderthal from doing just that.
Trying to take the cap apart, I used a crescent wrench on the lifting lever so I could get some torque on the nyloc nut on the bottom of the shaft. Yep, small roll-pin that holds the lever to the shaft broke! Nut was stuck solid.
Dale soon returned with a new roll-pin and proceeded to use some channel locks on the outside edge of the bottom part of the cap. Left some teeth marks, used a needle file to tone them down some, the nut finally came free with some LPS1 to loosen things up. Second cap came apart easier once I knew the technique.
Here are some photos with comments:
One cap apart the other waiting to be cleaned:
Corrosion under the big o-ring:
Parts, notice new roll pin? The glue looking stuff near the top of the cap is the "EZ-Lube" talked about during this thread. Nothing easy about removing it!:
YUK! Note crude on threads just from un-screwing the cap, 1998 build up to present, you can see that the bottom part of the cap has threads in it in this photo:
A real quick Stainless Steel brushing has this to show!:
Stainless Steel shaft. Note corrosion from aluminum on o-ring and shaft, in the top part of cap, see the white stuff where the shaft slides? Now is the time to realize that is why you need to push the shaft down to get the cap to work better when removing it for fill ups:
Parts cleaned ready for assembly, several photos showing pile of crud and shiny shaft, along with cleaned parts:
Stainless Steel toothbrush used to do the brushing, the gun cleaning bore brush (also SS) is in the background:
This will now be a yearly project!
Best regards,
Mike Bauer
Yesterday, finished the yearly inspection. My mechanic was listening when I mentioned found some junk in my left fuel tank.
It wasn't slosh! It was corrosion from my fuel caps; This post is what I found and how I fixed it.
At the start of the thread mentioned the lube for the caps. Well Dale educated me on fuel caps! Learned allot here on VAF, push the pin was a big help! However the reason why you need to push it down is corrosion has set in.
Dale told me that the little o-ring does not stop water from getting into the parts of the cap. Even if just outside in one rain fall you will have nasty stuff building up.
When learning to weld aluminum, the first step is too clean and then re-clean the areas to be welded. Just don't clean too much at a time. Air starts the corrosion process on aluminum as soon as you clean it.
The corrosion layer actually protects the aluminum.
To clean aluminum you will want a Stainless steel brush. Carbon steel creates a different kind of corrosion that isn't good for aluminum.
SS brush and a good Stainless Steel gun cleaning brush too. I used a .40CAL one. It fit perfect for cleaning the inside of the cap pieces where the SS shaft resides.
Safety glasses will keep the mess out of your eyes and the Acetone used to help clean.
The process takes 30-45 minutes per cap for a good thorough cleaning.
Here are some photos showing the breakdown and what you will be cleaning.
Please note, Dale as he was leaving for his normal place of work, mentioned, "Better leave before you break your cap". Thinking about this didn't stop the Neanderthal from doing just that.
Trying to take the cap apart, I used a crescent wrench on the lifting lever so I could get some torque on the nyloc nut on the bottom of the shaft. Yep, small roll-pin that holds the lever to the shaft broke! Nut was stuck solid.
Dale soon returned with a new roll-pin and proceeded to use some channel locks on the outside edge of the bottom part of the cap. Left some teeth marks, used a needle file to tone them down some, the nut finally came free with some LPS1 to loosen things up. Second cap came apart easier once I knew the technique.
Here are some photos with comments:
One cap apart the other waiting to be cleaned:
Corrosion under the big o-ring:
Parts, notice new roll pin? The glue looking stuff near the top of the cap is the "EZ-Lube" talked about during this thread. Nothing easy about removing it!:
YUK! Note crude on threads just from un-screwing the cap, 1998 build up to present, you can see that the bottom part of the cap has threads in it in this photo:
A real quick Stainless Steel brushing has this to show!:
Stainless Steel shaft. Note corrosion from aluminum on o-ring and shaft, in the top part of cap, see the white stuff where the shaft slides? Now is the time to realize that is why you need to push the shaft down to get the cap to work better when removing it for fill ups:
Parts cleaned ready for assembly, several photos showing pile of crud and shiny shaft, along with cleaned parts:
Stainless Steel toothbrush used to do the brushing, the gun cleaning bore brush (also SS) is in the background:
This will now be a yearly project!
Best regards,
Mike Bauer