'78 300D
143K

Thinking of going to the Florida GTG this weekend, and decided since things are slow here, to catch up on some overdue maintenance. Got the new front pads in and am waiting on UPS for the neutral safety switch. Oh well might as well check and top off all the fluids while I wait...

Go to lunch and stopped off to put 19 gallons of diesel in the tank. Squeezed in $52 dollars on the nose, with a little coaxing. After chow, I walked out to the parking lot, and BUMMER- a glistening puddle under the right rear. Uh oh, it's diesel. That's never happened before, but I thought I must have just overfilled her to get that even money on the pump, so I drove on to do a few errands.

Went back to work and looked again and drip, drip, around two per second, coming from the rubber tank-to-trunk seal, just exactly over the right axle, dripping-of course- all over the boot. Not good!

It is not coming from the fuel line, but from just ahead of it, which I guess means a pretty good hole in the tank between the tank and the passenger compartment. Dry in the trunk. I cleaned off as much fuel from the rubber axle boot with wet paper towels and dish soap as I could, and wrapped the rubber with plastic wrap and big rubber bands to hopefully protect the boot.

I removed the trunk back (front?) wall to expose the tank, and of course anything accessible is dry. Now I'm looking for enough fuel storage to hold 19 gallons (well, by now it's certainly less than that).

I guess when I get it drained, removing the tank shouldn't be too tough, except I don't have any help struggling it out. I don't have any major questions, but if anyone else has had a similar leak, and wants to throw out any suggestions, I'm all ears (eyes?)...and yes, there is rust on the trunk floor- this is a 30 year old car.

If any of you from North Florida have a lead on a cheap+good used tank or know of a close by salvage yard w/ 123's that would be cool. If I can't quickly find a replacement, I guess I'll just try to patch it, replace the lines, and move on. She's my DD.

Which reminds me, I do have a question: are the fuel line hoses locally available in the auto parts places suitable, or must I hunt down OEM rubber? Must I use the official threaded feed line, or just use generic and hose clamps on the old fitting?

BTW, Y'all enjoy the rolling GTG. I'm not gonna make it. Don't forget, if you get out to the Titusville area early enough, the Space Shuttle's set to launch tomorrow at 7:30 am, I think. I really want to see another one before they retire it! Have fun. Be safe.
tnx
Chev

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143K '78 300D
150K '87 Dodge B250
'63 Triumph Bonneville
'75 Norton Commando

Depends on where the leak is. I recently had the SD lines replaced, it has two, the mechanic did splice one of them.
They were very difficult to remove, as I don't have a lift and they needed a cheater bar to break them loose.
As you burn off the fuel, the leak may stop, mine did. So only a near to full tank may present problems.
You can see in the pic there is just a normal clamp on the hard line.

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83 SD

84 CD

>> As you burn off the fuel, the leak may stop

That's what finally happened at about 3 gallons. I suppose I could just not fill to the brim, but it makes me uncomfortable knowing there's a hole, especially since the fuel all ends up on the axle boot. I'm hoping that I can pull the tank with the feed line and screen filter intact, and remove both out of the car.

Did you replace your lines with bio diesel compatible rubber? If so what was the source? Most of the vendors I find don't address that. I'm not planning to convert to WVO, but will almost certainly run blended bio diesel in the future as it becomes available in my area. Not sure how happy the fuel injector pump will be about that...supposedly the earlier 300d's have more vulnerable rubber.

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143K '78 300D
150K '87 Dodge B250
'63 Triumph Bonneville
'75 Norton Commando

Check your fuel cap.

When I got my car the cap was leaking just a little. When the tank was full, just going around the corner would cause a little to leak out around the cap seal. If your filler neck rubber is shot, the fuel will go right into the car. I also had the constant drip out of the over flow.

Anyway, a new cap fixed the problem.

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AJ

1985 300D (SOLD)