Fuel tank neck basket removal

K

KNicholas2

Junior Member
I want to "calibrate" the fuel gauge in my '31 Coupe. However in the filler neck has a filter basket preventing access to the tank.
How to I safely remove the basket so I can access the fuel float?

Thanks.

Kim N.
 
What flame or spark is the arrestor supposed to prevent? No modern cars have them. No portable tanks have them.

I get it that the care can have a mild static charge, but the day in day out experience doesn't seem to support the need for this.
 
Mister Moose said:
What flame or spark is the arrestor supposed to prevent? No modern cars have them. No portable tanks have them.

I get it that the care can have a mild static charge, but the day in day out experience doesn't seem to support the need for this.
Click to expand...

Henry must have thought it was necessary or he wouldn’t have installed it. He didn’t throw in extras.🤓
 
Mister Moose said:
What flame or spark is the arrestor supposed to prevent? No modern cars have them. No portable tanks have them.

I get it that the care can have a mild static charge, but the day in day out experience doesn't seem to support the need for this.
Click to expand...


This is what my 5gal can has.
 

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Mister Moose said:
What flame or spark is the arrestor supposed to prevent? No modern cars have them. No portable tanks have them.

I get it that the care can have a mild static charge, but the day in day out experience doesn't seem to support the need for this.
Click to expand...

In theory, if no flame arrester were present, a lit match dropped into a mostly empty tank (i.e. full of gasoline vapor) could cause an explosion that would rupture the tank. The flame arrester prevents this possibility. That's my guess anyway – the purpose of the screen is to keep someone from blowing up your car. No idea whether it's true. It would also prevent accidental explosions, say if you were filling the tank and somehow made a spark.
 
jayvee34 said:
Mine is a lift out type also. I do have to stick my two fingers in it and twist it
a 1/4 turn and lift it out. If you have the screw in type then you would need
the tool from Snyder.
Click to expand...
They are all lift out after twisting. If you missed it I was referring to just lifting it out in the previous post to mine. That post would indicate it was just dropped loose in the tank from that post, which it is not. The OP not knowing would be thinking that all they would have to do, just reach in and lift out. It is locked into place.
 
Mine was the screw in type. I used the special tool to unscrew the threads, but I still could not lift the flame arrestor out. It fit VERY tight in the opening on my '29. I had to collapse the basket and pull it out with needle nose pliers, completely destroying the basket in the process. I don't know if I had an after-market basket that was too big, or if the metal swells with age (?) but it was a bear to get out.

W. Michael
 
jayvee34 said:
He may have seen the chart a member posted a week or so ago with the
inch's= gallons, and calibrate the float that way.
Click to expand...

With the screen in place, you can not use the calibrated stick because the stick will not drop the bottom of the tank. The screen must be removed to use the stick and to calibrate the float.
 
old31 said:
With the screen in place, you can not use the calibrated stick because the stick will not drop the bottom of the tank. The screen must be removed to use the stick and to calibrate the float.
Click to expand...

That is why KNicholas2 is asking how to remove the screen in post # 1.
 
Mister Moose said:
What flame or spark is the arrestor supposed to prevent? No modern cars have them. No portable tanks have them.

I get it that the care can have a mild static charge, but the day in day out experience doesn't seem to support the need for this.
Click to expand...

When filling my Model A or my airplane I have for years lightly touched the tip of the nozzle to a body part prior to sticking it into the tank to discharge any possible static electricity. It has become a habit. Can't hurt.
 
Flame arrester... A flame will not pass through a screen. Maybe someone smarter than I can explain why. I have seen screen flame arresters in fuel cans and even intake manifolds on 2 cycle engines.
As for the Model A, I understand that there was potential safety / liability issues with some state governments when Henry introduced/ proposed the "up front, high" gas tank. The flame arrester may have been a legal response to those concerns. Maybe someone here knows for sure.

Joe B

Joe B
 
The '26-'27 Model Ts had a cowl gas tank w/no flame arrestor, Henry must have had a good reason to put them in Model As.

Does anyone know if the Model Bs w/a rear mounted tank have a flame arrestor?
 
Hate to dread up an old thread like this, but it saves me creating a new one.

My 28 has the basket still and it makes it a PITA to fill at the pump. It seems the pumps are so fast it fills the basket and shuts the nozzle off before the fuel has run thru the basket.

Is everybody just taking them out and riding like that? I would rather keep it in there but man its aggravating. So it should twist and lift out good to know!

I always thought it was to catch bigger debris, rocks and rust and what not, back in the days when the fuel was crudy.
 
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