Well, if you're familiar with the smell of gas in the
cockpit of your Esprit, you probably need to replace the gas vent hose that is
know to eventually deteriorate.
Replacing the gas vent line was pretty straight forward, but finding the vent
line proved to be a bit tricky. As I was soon to discover, the gas vent line is
actually a series of vent lines that work their way from the left hand driver's
side gas tank filler neck and over the engine bulkhead, into a "t"
piece, which then branches out to the Roll Over Valve and to the right hand
passenger's side gas tank filler neck.
I replaced these series of lines as they were both badly deteriorated and gas
fumes would continue to come through as long as were not both replaced.
The vent lines I replaced are illustrated as the black
colored lines in the diagram below; the longer line represents the vent hose
that runs across the engine bay bulkhead and connects into the left hand gas
tank, and the shorter line represents the short run from the "t" connection to
the right hand gas tank:
To start, you need to first unscrew and remove the carpeted rear quarter
trim panels that are located to to the right and left of the engine bay struts.
Then pull down the carpeted area above the rear bulkhead; this will expose the
gas vent line. Continue pulling down the carpet to follow the vent line into
the trim panel areas. The picture below shows the carpeted area pulled down and
the red arrow points to the hose; this picture was actually taken after the
black replacement hose was installed.
My hose was so badly deteriorated that
it came out in pieces; you can see the old vent hose which is a clearish tan
color, and the new replacement vent line already in place. The replacment hose
I used was black fuel grade gas line from my local auto parts store...
Once I fished the new vent line in place
of the old vent line, I connected the vent on the driver's side into the fuel
filler neck connection. This requires advanced contortionist skills and the ability to
stand on your head for about an hour. The toughest part was removing the old
vent hose and clamp as it's located up in the pillar next to the fuel cap. I
used a small screw driver to loosen the hose clamp and razor blade to cut old
line just enough to pull it off the filler neck connection. Be careful not to
drop any old hose or hose clamps as the cavity below as it seems to be a
fiberglass no-man's land accessible only to spiders and small mammals. And
remember to thread on the hose clamp BEFORE connecting the hose! Photo below
shows the finished connection into the left hand side fuel filler neck.
I connected the right side of the vent
hose to the "t" piece by feel as it is mounted up in the right side
pillar near the passenger side gas tank and is tricky to remove. I also
replaced the badly deteriorated line from the "t" piece to Right Hand
passenger's side gas tank filler neck using the same flexibility skills I
developed earlier in the project. The right side connection is shown
below.
Once replaced, the gas smell went away
completely. I used contact cement from the local harware to glue the carpeting
and hose back into the bulkhead. I reinstalled the rear quarter trim panels to
complete the job. The remants of the old vent line can be seen below:
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