the gas bladder: exposed!

[galaxee]

quick introduction: this was the second bladder that DH has replaced for overfill damage. he decided to take it apart after work because his wife is extremely cranky right now writing her NRSA grant

here are the pictures. it was a hell of a lot of work, and the poor guy now is sitting next to me with an ice pack on his shoulder! enjoy!

oh, and if you wanna know more about overfill damage/why the tank was replaced in the first place, look here.

1. the whole assembly out of the car.


2. circular thing: electrical main. powers fuel pump, sending unit, temp sensor. small tube sends fuel to the engine. big tube, probably evap.


3. filler pipe with retaining nut. red thing... something to do with the evap system. have to dig more into that.


4. nut taken off filler neck, neck shoved all the way into tank. you can see the first cuts to the metal housing.


5. cutting...


6. cutting...


7. cutting... ooh!


8. quick close-up during cutting...


9. "cutaway" (huh huh) view of filler neck and "everything box" (aka fuel pump, fuel filter, sending unit, all that in the box there)


10. one of 4 corner nuts holding bladder down


11. a-ha!!!


12. finally... time to use the air tools, beeotch!


13 & 14. and air tools take a severe beating...



15. but prevail in the end!


16. it's like a tin can! and yes, there was a half cup or so of gas in there from the overfill.


17 & 18. rubber corner mount for the bladder.



19. bladder and all other stuff, removed from tank housing


20. a better shot, maybe.


21. bottom of the bladder, where the fuel line comes out and goes to the sending unit/"everything box"


22. bottom of the bladder again, now looking at where the fuel line goes to the box. he is holding on to the filler neck.


23. the everything box: with temperature sensor, fuel pump and sending unit wiring, and fuel pump outlet.


24. the bladder and associated stuff sitting on a bucket in a drain pan.


25. for size reference. DH has about average to small sized hands. dear, where's that wedding ring?!
he doesn't wear it at work, actually. but i assure you the man is taken!


epilogue: the "everything box" is up on the chopping block tomorrow. just cutting away the metal housing took about 90 minutes tonight!

the fuel sending unit was of particular interest given the "guess gauge" thing... so there are lots of pics of that.

1. just the "everything box"


2. different angle, minus hoses and such


3. minus top of case. here you see where the fuel goes in and pools, and levels out for the sending unit (the thing that tells the gauge what to read) to measure.


4. top of the case, with fuel pump (with screen), fuel filter, and sending unit with float. here all this time we had been thinking it was a magnet in a tube...


5. flipped over for a better view of the sending unit.


6. better angle of the fuel pump and etc. the cap is removed from the end of the fuel pump housing. on the top right is a no-fluid valve that leads to the vapor side of the charcoal canister.


7. fuel pump


8. housing without pump. the port up in there is where the fuel goes from the pump, into the filter.


9. pump/filter housing removed from top of case. there is no getting that filter out without some serious tools that we don't have handy at the moment. the metal deal on the top is the fuel pressure regulator.


10. ahh, the sending unit. the heart of the guess gauge.


11. one where the gauge would be displaying full


12. the moving contacts from the arm


13. minus the arm


14. close up of the number of different contacts. anyone care to count them? :P


15. size reference...


... and there it is. the whole gas tank pulled apart for your viewing pleasure.

ghastly thing...

[Beryl Octet]

Cool set of pics, thanks for sharing them with us!

[TonyPSchaefer]

Holy cow!! That's one complicated fuel tank!

Thanks for the pictures.
You know, ice helps curb pain a lot faster if it's in a mixed drink.

[galaxee]

wait a sec... this one shows no pics... there is a duplicate thread that shows them all... did i screw something up?

edit: nevermind. now they show up... gah!

[Tideland Prius]

lol

wow.. so the bladder is just a black rubber... bladder haha.

interesting. Didn't know the fuel tank was like a big waffle.

[Bill Merchant]

Thanks for all the pics, Galaxee, and thank your hubby for his interest and spending a couple of hours on this project. I hope everyone who tries to force a few more squirts into the tank can now understand why they shouldn't. How much does an R&R of the gas tank cost?

Tony, can you fix these two posts? The one with the paperclip icon has no pics, and this one does, but no icon. Is the database getting screwy?

[galaxee]

cost runs total between 4 and 5 hours labor (more or less $80/hour) depending on how FUBAR'd things are. and the tank cost like $380 which isn't bad considering when we put a fuel pump in his old camry they wanted like $200 for the pump alone!

[Godiva]

Well, now the pics show up on this thread and not the other.

Whatever.

That is really cool.

Did he take it apart just to see inside or is there some sort of repair that involves having to take it apart. Is it recyclable and being sent back? (What's the deposit on that thing, LOL)

What did the repeated overfilling do to warrant having to remove the tank/bladder? How do we know if we're doing that? I've never had gas spurt back out at me. But I also fill past the first shut off too, because of the bladder.

[htmlspinnr]

Define overfill... I've nursed mine many times to the neck w/o apparent consequence. Was this a violent overfill which ruptured the bladder?

[galaxee]

this is from the car i talk about in this thread

godiva: this was just for the sake of taking the thing apart. there's really nothing that can be repaired in there, just replaced.

he's kinda recycling it... the metal part is galvanized steel that goes in scrap metal for recycling. he's eventually using the resin part of the bladder for a fluid catch pan. the "everything box" is probably not recyclable.