after my recent problems in (no petrol) ive noticed my fe petrol tap lets fuel past when switched off, is it serviceable or is it a new one required ?
pete.
p.s. thanks miti, some very useful in formation in your reply to(no petrol).
Pete
The VF tap is a “sealed unit”… It’s rivetted together…
1st thing to do is to suss out where the leak is coming from…
Note: You’ll need to have your tank down to reserve or less to work on the tap…
Prop the tank on it’s RHS - use a nice soft blanket (or similar) to save your paintwork…
Unscrew the allen bolt in the centre of the ctap control knob and remove the knob…
You’ll now see the tap body and the outer ring of the tap recess are held in by 2 x m6 (8 mm head) bolts… unscrew the bolts and remove the tap and ring…
You’ll now see the tank tap recess with 3 small fuel outlets in the back of it (as well as the 2 x M6 threaded holes)
What to check…
On the tank, look for any suspicious rust blisters at the bottom of the tap recess… It’s not unknown for a rust pinhole to form there and for fuel to leak out…
On the tap’ Check the seal at the back (it’s 3 circles joined together - these perish… Check the back off the tap too… I had one that had suffered much abuse and was badly corroded…
That’s all that you can check, unless you’re brave enough to break out the drill…
Up for it…? Good…
Break out the B&D - you’ll need a 2.5mm bit…
Drill though the centre of each rivet head holding the tap cover plate in place… You need to drill in about 8 mm or so…
Now use a 5 mm (ish) bit to drill the head completely off the rivets…
The tap will now come apart…
What to check: there are 2 seals… The o-ring around the tap selector and the flat seal that sits behind it… The o-ring is square in section, but a good quality neoprene rubber o-ring will seal quite nicely if need be…
If the flat seal (with the holes in) is in any way damaged, you’ll need a new one… which means sussing out which seals fit…?? I never got that far…
Directly under the cover plate is a “wavy” spring washer… Thes rust/lose their spring and the tap can be “rejuvenated” if you bend a bit more life back into it… Carefully does it, 'cos if broken, so is the tap…
Finally, check for corrosion in the tap body… If all is good, you’ll need to tap the 2 x 2.5 mm holes out with an M3 tap. You’ll need 2 x M3 x 8 mm screws/bolts to put it back together with…
Note: Lube the seals…!! Use petroleum jelly (vaseline) or silicone grease - don’t use ordinary LM grease and keep copaslip well away from these seals… (They ain’t as “precious” as brake seals, but why take the chance…??)
If it still leaks… New tap… It comes complete with the seal at the back, so don’t order that separately…
HTH
Miti
thanks for the info miti, got a few jobs to do on the fe, top end oiler to fit, my original spark units to put back on,and now petrol tap to “butcher”…also got to make my mind up what to do about the petrol pump/relay issue i wrote about in (no petrol).Will probabaly do the same as you did,then if the pump takes out the relay, at least its only a cheap one.
pete.