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Help. Unable to siphon gas from tank to change transfer pump

Hi, I think my fuel transfer pump is dead in the '85 Golf. I have a replacement pump. Unfortunately, I filled the gas tank just before the transfer pump died. I understand the tank has to be 3/4 or less full otherwise when I take out pump assembly, fuel will pour out.

I bought a $4 spihon hose with squeeze bulb, but can't seem to get it too far down the filler neck. And the siphon doesn't work worth beans filling the hose with gas to start the siphoning.

Searching the Internet, seems cars have a ball float that in the event of an accident and the car is upside down, the ball stops fuel from spilling out. The side-benefit (a problem in my case) is it prevents a siphon hose from being inserted into the tank. Is this the case in the '85? Should I try a thinner tube? Current vinyl hose has a

1 cm inside diam.

Any suggestions on how I can reduce the volume of gas in the tank? I'm not sure the car is drivable so can't even take it to a shop to have tank removed and drained. And if it'll start, it's too unrealiable in its current state to drive around to burn off the fuel. And I don't want to spill the fuel all over the ground--there's no way I can catch it all for disposal.

Thanks.

-Tony.

Reply to
tonyw
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The engine will run with a faulty transfer pump... so just drive the car for about 100 miles or until the main pump gets noisy.

Reply to
Lost In Space/Woodchuck

Just idle for a few hours?

Reply to
Tom's VR6

Thanks for the tips. I was reluctant to drive it around to burn off fuel in case it conked out on me again. The engine has been stalling out, mostly at lower RPMs, such as when rolling up to a stop light. After letting it sit for 5-15 minutes, it would restart and run fine. I wasn't sure it would run long enough to burn off fuel.

After my email today, I perservered with the siphon and various tubing. It took about 2 hours but I managed to siphon out 20 Litres of fuel a few millilitres at a time, enough to crack open the top of the fuel tank without a spill.

Anyways the job is done. I replaced the transfer pump and the fuel filter. After a couple of tries, the car started and idled fine. I'm going to test drive it around the neighbourhood next (so it won't be too far to push it home).

In other attempts to solve the stalling problem I have changed the fuel pump relay and freshened up the 2 grounds on the engine block about a month ago. I thought I had it licked. But the stalling reappeard a month later. Usually we could let it sit for 5-15 minutes and it would start again and it would run fine for days. This last time (Tuesday night) after sitting for 2 hours, it wouldn't start at all, tried cranking it periodically over a 45 minute period. BCAA kindly towed it home. So I thought I'd try replacing the pump today.

Any other thoughts would be much appreciated? It's a well maintained '85 Golf, single owner. Thanks again for your help. -Tony

Reply to
tonyw

Update: went for a test drive. I think I heard 2 fuel pumps whirring this time when I turned the key!! I think I had only been hearing the main pump whirring with the old transfer pump in place. Is that just my imagination and wishful thinking? I really wish I could solve this stalling problem, it's worrisome when the family is in the car and it can stall without any warning.

Reply to
tonyw

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