All,

As some of you may know I recently did a complete gas tank refurbishment on my car.

When I got everything back together I noticed that the wiring insulation to the fuel sending unit had cracked/ split along about 2' of length exposing the copper wires.

Naturally having electricity in close proximity to fuel is not a good combination. A thorough re-wrap with electrical tape took care of the problem and a potentially decidedly negative event.

Might be worth a quick look see on your own cars to check the condition of your wiring.

Second, I recently pulled a AAV off a junk yard car for a spare. Brought it home, cleaned it up, boiled and rinsed it several times. Any way to check to know if it actually works? She looks good but can she dance?

 

Brad
If you look down the side entry pipe of the AAV unit, the entry point for air from the air filter box, when the unit is cold you should be able to see the internal piston is raised partly up the bore of the unit, this letting air flow into the bore and up through the holes in the piston bottom.
After a time in hot water, the piston SHOULD be much lower and be completely cling off the entry tube. This leaves a small path through the slow running adjuster tube that enters the bore below the piston bottom, wherever the piston is sited. I have attached an embarrassingly bad diagram!

 

Here ya go.

Enjoy.

AAV rebuild procedure.doc

 

Greg, Grant,


Thanks. All of that actually makes sense to me. Hmmm....
For now, rather than taking the entire thing apart, I am going to just soak it in some vinegar and then boil it again to clean all the tarnish and gunk off the internal parts. This is my spare. After all these years though I'm guessing that there may be a degree of buildup in the AAV already on the car. Pulling and cleaning that one also appears to be in order.