Quick Fuel vent question

That line on my 72 goes to a canister in the passenger side's rear fenders. Look under the floorpan on the passenger side. In the channel where the body bolts are you'll see a hardline going from that canister in the back to the front, through a very sharp bend (rubber) back to hardline into the trunk to that canister there. In the trunk, that line goes from that sharp bend first to the driver's side (for no good reason I can see), then right under where the radio is and into the canister. Pretty weird path.. Mine was bent at that sharp bend.

That stuff is there for a pollution evaporation control system - not so much tank venting, I think. I've heard that people get rid of them. Not sure if that is a good idea or not.

I may have pictures somewhere but will have to search for them so let me know if you need them.

Remco

That line should be connected to a ported vacuum connection on the carb. No vacuum at idle and vacuum when the throttle is moved. It is intended to draw the gas vapor off the top of the tank and clean it. What doesn't get cleaned gets burned.

Remco,

Is your 72 a Super or a standard? Mine is a standard and has no canister in the rear wheel well, just up front. Do the standards have the canaster in the rear well too?

The car runs perfect so there is no fuel flow problems, so could I just run the line outside and call it a day? Thanks

Mine's a 72 standard.

Like the other poster mentions, a line from the carb goes to this canister in the rear and then goes all the way back to the front.

Last night, after you asked the question, was thumbing through my bentley to refresh what it did. They have a small section on it so here's the scoop (it is from memory, so hope it is accurate):

That canister in the front is an expansion chamber. The one in the rear is a filter. That steel line brings the fuel vapors from the expansion tank to the back, where it is filtered. When the bug is started, this vapor is blown into the air intake and burned (an air line from the doghouse does the blowing, another line to the intake takes it in). It is a way to make sure that unburned fuel vapors don't escape into the atmosphere.

Mine smelled badly too and basically found that the line that you have dangling was not hooked up to the steel line. Hooking it up fixed my smelling problem. It makes sense, because that dangling hose is like having your gascap off.

Since you don't have any of the stuff in the rear fender, I wonder if you can just plug that dangling line up or get rid of that whole system alltogether, plugging the line from the tank to the expansion chamber. If one can do that with impunity, one would also need to make sure that the lines to the rear canister is plugged This is a question for the gurus (Bob, Jim, Jan, etc)..

Remco

Thanks to both of you for the replies. That is the information I'm looking for. I have two books (one is the Bentley manual) on the way. They should help fill in the missing pieces.

Thanks, JW