Newbie needs help with xj6 fuel tank problem! Please please help!
 

Hey, I just bought a 1982 XJ6 toda and I love(d) it. lol.:p What happened was is that I bought it form a guy who never uses the drivers side tank, so he never has selected it, and didnt tell me much about how the saddlebag tanks work, I found out that they are pressurized and kinda complicated. Well anyways, I buy the car form him and leave his house, I go to auto zone to pick up the normal stuff, wipers, injector cleaner etc...and I am looking at everything with my friend and we see a gas tank button on the dash above the radio, so me being me I press it....it does nothing(or so I think):o so we just leave it alone, well I start to leave auto zone and gas starts pouring out of the left side...like fast right behind the back driver side tire, :confused: So I pull off at a gas station and have it towed to my friends house, well I figure if I can get the button to push back out it will go to the other tank and I will be okay for now....but I pushed it at auto zone and it did nothing, didnt pop back out, can anyone suggest how to make it pop back out or how I can force it back to the other tank. Please let me know any suggustons you may have. Look forward to all your answers thanks =]

I can send you a switch, and if you search for my posts in XJ6 you will find a description about the fuel return system I wrote about three or four weeks ago.

But is there any way that i can make the button pop out so i can drive it today?

Well that's a new trick, usually the latching mechanism inside the switch breaks and you can't get the button to stay in. Pull the switch out and fool with the latching bar where it comes through the side of the switch, and maybe you'll get lucky.

but he needs to know how to pull the old switch JTO...

here's how:

pull the Trip Computer first, (the large black box at the top of the panel above the 4 switches);

get some thin nylon string, Flossing String works fine. Make a double loop and slide it behind each corner of the trip computer as you pull a little at a time. The trip computer has a spring bracket on each side. Once it releases, pull it out of the opening and disconnect the two plugs, NOTE: make markings on one of the plugs with magic marker so that you remember which one goes with which!

Now you can stick your hand through the opening and start pushing the switch out of its hole. It won't be easy but it is doable.

The other way to do this is to remove the radio first, and then the a/c controls, then remove the entire panel, a big mess.


Otherwise the fuel Tank system is not that complicated.


Jose

I'm about 99% sure that an '82 will have the older design panel without a trip computer. If so the switch will be in a little mounting panel which can be simply wriggled out...gently....its just held in with tiny little pegs. And then the switch can be removed....and with a little monkeying around hopefully returned to the "out" position until a new switch arrives.

Then the rest of of changeover system can be repaired !

Cheers
DD

sorry, I may have responded too quickly. Doug may be 99% correct!

Either of you could be correct for an '82 model. If it has the trip computer, Jose is correct. If it has an analog clock, Doug is correct. 1982 is a split year.

hey guys my 1985 xj6 switch isn't working either, it wont push in and stay.
When I put gas into the right tank the left tank builds pressure. I can smell gas in the car and trunk.
yesterday I saw a small gas puddle under the car. What's wrong? Do I have to replace fuel lines? Is a solenoid in the tank bad? Please help!