[T3] A Saturday, a lift and a T3

[Allen Moore <concept@compassnet.com>]

* Warning Long Post * 

  I am pleased to report that my 70' Square is back on the road
  again!  A freind and I spent yesterday putting in a new center
  brake line.  But along the way, we had lots of fun like:

  While I had the car up on the lift, I decided to change out 
  the fuel filter.  Since the fuel line runs from the gas tank
  to the filter, I just put a clamp on this line and removed the
  filter.  No leaks, no drips.  I walked over to the work bench
  and grabbed the new fuel filter, and I heard a sound like hard
  rain. I turned around and GAS was pouring out of the bottom of
  the tank like you wouldn't believe!  Looked like a fire hydrant
  was turned on.  So I quickly moved the clamp up to the edge of
  the hose, right before the tank connection, luckily this held.
  What happened was that while the PO replaced the fuel hose on
  the ring main, they didn't replace the fuel line hose from the 
  tank to the fuel pump and the original fabric coated rubber line just 
  shattered when I clamped it.  The line was hard as rock. 
  Luckily a VW FLAPS was just around the corner, and open, I have
  since replaced ALL the hose around the fuel pump with the correct
  black fabric coated FI fuel line.  Fortuately, there were no open       flames
and we washed down the garage floor to get the gas out. 
  That is, when we were able to get back in there after the fumes 
  vented out! I wonder how many people have blown themselves up 
  performing this job? Is there a better way to change the filter
  out so that this won't happen again? 

  I took the old filter outside, it had a black plastic casing and
  poured some of the gas that was still in it on the concrete driveway.
  The drips appeared to be bright red!  Hmmm, I'm not running 80/87 in
  this car and after the gas on the concrete evaporated red stains were
  left over. Rust!   The new filter I got has a semi-transparent case,
  same shape, correct part number and after it was installed I looked 
  at it and the gas that is in there doesn't appear to be red or contain
  rust.  I figured that this filter was probably on the car for a long,
  long time.  I also view this as an indication of rust in the gas tank.
  I looked at the outside of the gas tank, no rust at all.  Now, am
  I going to be driving down the road and have the tank rust through and
  turn into a fireball? 

  Another thing I noticed was that after I replaced the fuel filter,
  the Square didn't want to start.  I mean it REALLY didn't want to
  start.  I tried the key on, key off many times to try to build up
  pressure in the line.  I finally had to use some starting fliud
  to get it running.  As soon as it started, it stayed running on 
  it's own however. Is this typical for the T3?  I remembered the 
  shipping company ran it out of gas when I first got it, and it
  was just as hard to get it going again after I put in gas.  

  Installing the center brake line was a heck of a job, but when the 
  old one came out, you could see that it rusted and split just about 
  3 inches in the interior, in front of the gas pedal. I went down to 
  my local electronic parts store and found rubber grommets that fit
  the chassis holes perfectly! I used a stainless steel replacement line.
  I also used some rags soaked in water to clean up all the brake fluid
  on the driver side floor pan and a compressor to dry it out. Worked
  out great! But I can kiss that original carpet goodbye! 
  
  I also changed out the brake hoses as well. So the brake system
  in this square is 90% new.  One last question for you all, I 
  replaced the master cylinder but I haven't yet adjusted the brake
  pedal freeplay.  Since I used a new ATE master cylinder does this
  freeplay in practice need to be readjusted?  The pedal still seems
  kind of soft and a little bit low.  I bled the heck out of the 
  brakes too. The rear wheels will lock up if you hit the pedal hard.
  On properly adjusted brakes, about how much room should be left 
  between the brake pedal and the floor when the brakes are depressed
  fully?  
 
  Sorry about rattling on.... 

  Allen
  70' Square 
  Houston, TX

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