What's the deal with...

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4spdcuda66

4spdcuda66

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early A-bodies leaking fuel down the driver side quarter panel? I see a lot of photos of A-bodies with tell tale stains and paint wear from this problem. Does the seal for the fuel cap dry out or something? The tank sits quite a bit lower than the filler hole. Do people just overfill the tank to the point where the fuel level is all the way up the tube and it sloshes out? Any ideas on how to prevent this? Someday when my car is ready for paint, I don't want gasoline spillage all down my new clear coat. Thanks for any helpful tips on this subject.
 
Yep, buy Damraider's gas cap to stop that mess.

Even with 1/2 tank of fuel, my 65 would wet the side of the car because the crappy gas cap would not seal.

I installed one of his caps and never see a drop of fuel get past it, even with a full tank & a hard turn.

B.
 
Damraider is a good guy to deal with on this site.
I have not used this part, but eveything I have bought from him has been great.
 
Yep, I'm a customer. You know I've never noticed that when I was driving my car that gas leaked down the quarter, but when I put fuel in it....it would spill down the side of the car.
 

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moparlee said:
Yep, I'm a customer. You know I've never noticed that when I was driving my car that gas leaked down the quarter, but when I put fuel in it....it would spill down the side of the car.
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the flip top gas caps on a 68 barracuda don`t do this do they>
dam good looking car too!
 
Thanks for the info. I have considered the flip top fuel cap. If I don't go that route, I'll try damraider's o-ringed cap.
 
I believe damraider has a good product and hope to get a cap from him when I get some extra money but I think the stains that you see are from carelessness when people put gas in their car and pull the nozzle away. It always seems to drip a bit and after awhile, it accumulates into one large stain. A little care when filling up and wiping any spillage off immediately can go a long way. JMO Dennis
 
Who the heck has enough $ to fill their cars up anyway ? joke

I never fill my Darts up for this reason. $20.00, and go.
 
Years ago Laysons had a fix listed on there site for this, it was for the early-A's.
 
inkjunkie said:
Years ago Laysons had a fix listed on there site for this, it was for the early-A's.
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I remember seeing that in their catalog. They wanted customers to send them their filler tube and Layson's would make some modification. There was no photo and no description as to what the mystery fix was. If it was the seal on the cap all along, I don't know what they would do to the filler tube to fix it.
 
do you sell just the o-ring i have the stock cap dont realy want to get rid of it tks Paul
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The o-ring I use will not work with the stock cap, sorry .

Steve
 
The gist of it lies with the fact that the filler neck is at a fairly low angle. There isn't much slope from the tank to the cap. Plus the car was design with a leaded fuel pump in mind and unleaded is much thinner so auto-stop doesn't work in most pumps. This causes the fuel level to be high sometimes into the neck.

You should install a baffle in the neck like the one in the link.

An o-ringed fuel cap like the one damraider sell would likely help a good deal and it is a nice looking piece.

On the subject of laysons they have a less than stellar reputation. I personally have bought a pair of 1/4 patch panels from them. They came in about 10 days apart, explained by 1 coming straight from factory. The first to arrive was perfect and galvanized, the second to arrive wasn't stamped as good and wasn't galvanized. But from time or order to arrival was within 3 weeks for both. So I guess I had an okay experience with them.
 
See the attached link to see how a stock 65 Dart gas cap was modified to eliminate fuel spillage during turns or parked on hills when the tank is close to full:
https://picasaweb.google.com/107913...key=Gv1sRgCNnr0rbjkonFyAE#5719178111472419602

The o-ring was purchased at a hardware store in the plumbing section.
The gasket was purchased at NAPA & cut to size.

Before you ask.....the raised gas cap screws with spacers underneath are part of a gas cap locking system......unscrew the top screw holding the filler tube to the rear quarter panel. Then re-install from inside the trunk after installing the gas cap....the raised screw/spacer catch on the screw & prevents rotation. When you need to get the cap off....open the trunk & partially unscrew the top filler tube screw to just clear the gas cap stops.

Hopefully this will keep my original gas cap from wandering off to someone's elses early A body while maintaining the stock appearance.
 
My gas cap seems to seal just fine...never seen the quarter wet from gas and I generally fill her within one gallon full. ...Also, when I pump gas into my '66 Barra. I hold the pump nozzle upside down (butt end in 12 o'clock position)which prevents any spillage during refueling.
 
ZooKypr said:
My gas cap seems to seal just fine...never seen the quarter wet from gas and I generally fill her within one gallon full. ...Also, when I pump gas into my '66 Barra. I hold the pump nozzle upside down (butt end in 12 o'clock position)which prevents any spillage during refueling.
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X2. Except for the obvious careless filling of the tank, most of the leaks I've seen on those early A-bodies were from damaged caps and/or filler necks. I've run across lots and lots of necks that were damaged from someone trying to install the '67-up gas caps.
 
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