The aroma of limey's petrol (gas) soaked trousers.....

[limey]

This should probably be in the Mopar Garage somewhere, but i can't see a "Fuel and Air" corner, so I'm putting it here awaiting a happy clicking moderator....

I have a problem with filling my gas tank....it never happened on my last charger, but everytime I try to fill the gas tank up, I can get about 17 US gallons in there, and then it bursts over the top and all the way down my leg....the adoring onlookers then start smirking, and I lose a lot of the cool that I demonstrate by driving such an awesome vehicle....worse than that, it strips the wax off the paintwork..... so I have to wax the rear quarter....again. When I drive away, the gauge reads about 7/8ths full, even though I have filled it to the top of the filler neck. Now obviously the gauge could be giving a faulty reading, but either way the tank should hold more......there appears to be a lot of air gurgling out of the filler neck every time I fill it up, and particularly as it showers the $11 per gallon premium fuel all over me...
Any known air lock issues? Does anyone else have a similar problem?
Obviously with increased experience filling up this car...(which I get every few miles  ) I am having less of a problem, but, I am still not getting the full 19Gals in, and the gauge never, ever reads full, even when it is.......Limey

[BrianShaughnessy]

Unless you're running the car completely out of fuel and pushing it down to the "petrol" station...   you'll never likely put the full 19 gallons in there.

I get gas it I'm down to 1/4 tank or so or going someplace.

Just make sure that vent tube is on the filler inside the trunk.   It vents down through into the framerail.

[tan top]

i don't now if this applies to your tank but i think remember hearing or reading a few years back  something about , the  new genuine mopar gas tanks was 1 gallon smaller than the original and the repoped ones.  but i am not sure if the new genuine oem charger tanks are smaller  . might be worth re calibrating the sender unit  to match the gauge reading also make sure the sender is grounded properly to the body.   if all this fails you might need a new sender unit and or gauge repairing. to test the fuel gauge pull the wire off the sender and ground it the gauge should read full . hope this is of some use.

[limey]

Hey tan top, how would you recalibrate the sender if this is necessary? I wouldn't be surprised if the gauge/and/or sender needed replacing - seeing as the all of the gauges are a little temperamental (oil pressure died on the way home from the vendor...) but I don't get the recalibration thing....sorry if this seems a little stupid of me, but I don't really get auto electrics, its like a black art as far as I'm concerned...more of a greasy oily gear, pinon and cog kind of guy, me.........SO how would you recalibrate it?

Brian.....checked the vent, it seems ok. If the vent was blocked somehow, could it lead to all the airlock symptoms and general belching that I get?

[Brock Samson]

 My Fuel gauge has been 20-30% short of full since i first got the car 22 years ago.. only works for a short time every now and again... 
I've been through the sender/float three times and boiled it out twice now... even swapped the guage never fills without chokin some gas out the top at the end, (new tank pad and straps too). your so right,..  just enuff to strip the wax and look dangerous... and really old school i like to act really angry when seeing the $ going up, up, up... 
  one day i'd like to put a big flex tube below to get the space in the trunk where that fuel filler cuts across... 
I'd like to hear from the guys who have a perfectly operating fuel filler system to see if it's actually possible. 

So what are your plans for that bad boy?..

[limey]

Come on! YEah!



Sometimes, I think I'm the only one who is so totally thrilled with something but still ends up looking like a prize tit at every opportunity!
Good to know that you have the same problem too, Stratocharger....

When you drive a cool muscle car into a gas station, in the UK, get all the adoring looks, then cover yourself in fuel, fail to start the car and stall it when you finally do! (my mechanic had just got the emissions down on the gas analyzer but choked it so far down that it would stall on full lock! ) You lose the cool factor big style....its like the guys from "The Matrix" poncing about looking hard in their leather coats and big guns, only to have their coat tails blow up in the breeze to reveal a pair of leather chaps and a pimply ass!!

Anyway..you get the idea...I reset the idle/mixture screws as soon as I got home.....don't want that happening again...stuff the emissions.....if I cared about emissions I'd be driving a Chevrolet Matiz....(shudder)

As for the plans...I might go out with the camera and put some pics together of things I need to sort out......
Limey

[General_01]

My fuel gauge does not work at all. I write the milage down when I fiil up and drive about 150 miles and fill up again.

Limey, I have the same problem with mine. The first time I filled the car with gas I had gas everywhere. I got used to it and now I don't get gas all over the quarter panel. I have a new tank to put in, I am just waiting until I can afford a new sending unit and 3/8 fuel line. So you are not the only one with this problem.

[Charger_Fan]

Yep, back in the days when I drove my Charger all the time, I really had to watch out when the tank was nearing the full mark. I used to get my ear near the filler neck (not directly above, in case it splashed) & listen for the change in sound as the gas came up the neck...then release the trigger!
After it's full, it'll sit there burbling & bubbling for a while.

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Everyone is missing the real point of the story..........................

$11 per gallon premium fuel all over me...

$11 a gallon

Crikies!


I just take my time filling her up....real slow.  takes me about 7-10 mins to fill the tank from empty.

Do it slow now after the first & last time I had a spill over....gas takes the black paint off nicely from the ridges in the fuel cap ring

[Dave22443]

Dang, I guess I'm one of the lucky one's then because I've never had this problem with mine.  I hold the nozzle full stream until it clicks off.  A few short squeezes to round it off to the nearest $$$ and I'm full.  Never had it burp.  Never had a problem.  (Its a second gen, is that what we're talking about?)

My gas gauge will go all the way to full, but not right away.  When I've first filled up, it goes up to about 3/4.  A few miles down the road and its pretty much at the FULL mark. 

... of course, a few more miles down the road and its back to 3/4 again but thats more an effect of the big block then it is the guage 

[Khyron]

gas takes the black paint off nicely from the ridges in the fuel cap ring

they have black ridges??

[General_01]

gas takes the black paint off nicely from the ridges in the fuel cap ring

they have black ridges??

I was thinking the same thing.

[69charger2002]

they used to
unless you have a repop or a near mint original, most would probably think they all just came plain silver/chrome
trav

[tan top]

Limey first i would check the gauge , pull the wire from the sender and ground it , the gauge should read full.also wile you are at it crimp a new terminal on the end,as it is probably has some corrosion in it by now.if all is ok remove the sender ( drain tank first) ,make sure the float is moving up and down freely and is not binding or notchy.if thats ok connect the sender back up out of the tank, easier if you push the sender wire back though the trunk floor for more room,don't forget to ground the sender with a temporary wire also .move the float to full and then empty and see what the gauge is reading. the gauge is always slow to react to the float movement.calibrating the the sender to the gauge, tank level i always slightly bend the float arm position as required ( holding the arm before pivot bit straight with vice grips) ,judging the float level in side the tank (tank removed) sender connected to the gauge , it takes a bit of time and is trial and error, it has worked for me and by setting the levels, i have adjusted mine to have about 2 gallons of gas in the tank when the gauge shows empty. calibrating/ repairing a gauge for me is best left to a auto electrical teck guy as my auto electric knowledge stops there . just a thought looking at the chargers owners manual it reads fuel capacity
                                            US      - 21         - GALLONS
                                       IMPERIAL  - 17 1/2   - GALLONS
a imperial gallon has more liquid volume.

[limey]

I thought the tank was 19US Gallon capacity? All my literature (harvested over 20 years of Charger obsession) gave me that impression...
It's crazy...obviously I judge fuel efficiency (or inefficiency -lol-) in Imperial mpg, which are indeed bigger..
BUT..I have tgo buy my petrol in litres....
GReat...no wonder things get confusing?
Thanks for the help and tips guys......
Limey

[tan top]

yeah Limey , i thought they held 19 gallons, 15-3/4 gallons imperial, then i read the original 69 owners manual , for the first time since owning the charger ,and it said 21 gallons, i have never filled the tank right up at a gas station to prove/ disprove this, i have only  gver filled the tank up from drums of race gas or mixed race & pump gas .but 19 gallons is correct give or take

[limey]

Hey tan-top, where are you based?
Just you are often on line the same time as me.....and if you were on East coast time...that would make you about hitting 5am now....jsut wondering if you are over here in Europe....
L

[Jon Smith]

$11 a gallon??  where do you get your petrol from? i make it about $7.70 (UK gallon)

[limey]

$11 a gallon??  where do you get your petrol from? i make it about $7.70 (UK gallon)

Sorry Jon, I had converted the price to the cost of US Gallons for our American brethren....and added the cost of the slug of Shell "Millennium" lead subsitute to the already very expensive (up North) Shell optimax.....it was £1.02 per litre or something the other day......
Limey

[Jon Smith]

I am up north
I worked it out on 95p a litre
i just use basic unleaded with no additives, but i do have ally heads so i've got hardened valve seats

[limey]

Thats right...I remember you saying....well I'm not taking any chances with my original heads....hence the Optimax price hike - used to be able to get it for about 98p a litre up until last week!....

Lancashire...?
Up North......
Why....thats somewhere in the midlands isn't it..
heheheheh
No!No! don't give me a 
Nick (limey)

[limey]

Latest in my fuel related trauma....I'm gonna tell it longhand so you get the feel for it...

I go in to my class after lunch (I'm a music teacher btw) just as I connect to the wireless network to take the register, a colleague comes in, looking white and panicked....

"Nick...I'll take your register...someone will cover your classes this afternoon....you have to go home..."
Running through my head were images of my parents/sister/girlfriend dead in a road traffic accident - hell I've been there before!....
"your neighbour has just phoned, the bin men (garbage men) have driven their truck into your new charger and there is fuel pouring out of the fuel tank and your neighbour has phoned the fire brigade....I'm really sorry...."
(I'm reeling) - glad no one I love is in trouble, but still....my Charger.... )......

Driving home, very fast, working out rebuild costs in my head.......thanking god I have full insurance and thinking about how I'm gonna rearrange the face of the truck  driver....
When I get there, I find fuel pouring out of the bottom of the rear quarter...but no damage?
RELIEF!
Somewhere between my neighbours calling, and the message getting to me, the message changed from "the garbage men knocked on the neighbour's door to point out that fuel was running down the drain" to "the garbage men have driven their truck into the shiny red charger and the fuel tank has split in two...fire brigade coming to "make it safe"
Jeez....!
The reason this post belongs in this thread is..yesterday as I checked the vent tube connection to the top of the filler neck, I must have disturbed it.Ordinarily not a problem, but over here it is one of the hottest days in the year, and my tank is just about 20 miles short of full. The fuel has expanded up the filler neck, into the vent hole and drained through the trunk and through the carpet, and the rubber grommet in the trunk floor.

So, my fuel trauma continues, have siphoned off two gallons and replaced the joint on the vent pipe...hopefully that is it....
All of that on company time.....the only reason they sent me home was they thought my pride and joy had been totalled.....makes you appreciate your employers....
Limey

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Crap Nick.....good thing no one was smoking nearby



PS----yes, the ring is supposed to have black ribs.....

(in the pic you can see where some of it got eaten off by the gas....)

[limey]

Hey, Chris...
I know the 69s had the "Fuel" type flip top gas cap with the indented trim ring, but did the 68 Charger have the locking filler cap and  sprung seal like the 69? mine has inherited a nasty "one size fits all" gas cap - which my 69 also had...it looks like someone has pulled of the sprung sealing ring to fit it in. I don't see any locking filler caps in the YO catalogue...but that doesn't necessarily mean my car shouldn't have one...
L
PS...it's funny, with my 69, even though it wasnt as nice a car as my new 68, I kind of just ran it.....never gave it too much of a thought...but the details are eating me on this new one....maybe its because I've just hit 30.....

[Charger_Fan]

Geez Limey, I'm glad the incident wasn't any worse & that someone was paying attention.
Aahh, the joys of owning old musclecars!