When I drop my tank, I am going to run hard connected steel lines from the top of the tank off to one side or to the front where they will be accessible.

And remount the electric pump where it can be accessed more easily.

As Barth shoulda done.

Barths are indeed well-built, but that doesn't mean the factory didn't go for cheap and easy when it would do the job. As all modern products, they were engineered for economical production, not easy maintenance. They weren't designed in anticipation of a fanatic bunch of enthusiasts restoring them 30 years down the road. I found more than one instance of production short-cuts and dimensional errors as I refurbished mine.

"of production short-cuts and dimensional errors as I refurbished mine."

Yeah. In ALL production, the guy with the wrench will often "improve" the engineer's design, often saving (mucho) $, so it is ignored by the production super...or officially changed to the Wrench's new plan.

quote:

Originally posted by Gunner:
"of production short-cuts and dimensional errors as I refurbished mine."

Yeah. In ALL production, the guy with the wrench will often "improve" the engineer's design, often saving (mucho) $, so it is ignored by the production super...or officially changed to the Wrench's new plan.

Yes. I lost track of how many of my formal written and documented suggestions were ignored, and then later implemented.

My employer had a program whereby they solicited suggestions and rewarded them with a formula based on how much money was saved over the predicted life of the airplane. But, they didn't like to pay, so they paid on only some, with great fanfare and photo ops, and used the rest a little later with no attribution or reward.

Years ago i knew an old mechanic that was working on a taillight problem on a car.....had a wire arc to the frame. Unfortunately the gas tank had a small leak that nobody knew about. It blew up in his face, severe burns to all of his upper body, only reason he survived is somebody that was at his shop pulled him out from under the car and smothered the flames and the fire dept was only a block away. Never worked again and died a couple of years later.

Someone in this file once mentioned that a generator is fed with a separate fuel line from the gas tank, so that if a generator drinks the fuel until its fuel tube sucks air, that the engine of the rig will still be able to get fuel to drive someplace.

On my 1986 P30 chassis, that is not true.



Like they say, your mileage may vary. On mine, the rubber hose in the picture is connected to a T fitting. One line goes to the engine, one to the generator from that T fitting.

What are the other two lines in the picture for? I would guess that one of them is a return line but the other? Also, I see two electrical connections. Again, I guess one is for the fuel gage but what about the other? My 85 Regal 454 does not have an electric fuel pump anywhere, depending on the engine mounted fuel pump to do all the sucking.

quote:

Originally posted by Jim and Tere:
My 85 Regal 454 does not have an electric fuel pump anywhere, depending on the engine mounted fuel pump to do all the sucking.

At the minimum, I would wrap aluminum foil around any fuel line on the intake side of the pump you can reach.