Sniffing petrol

The rear end of our Evo1 has smelled of fuel for a good while now, when filling the tank

a little fuel leaks from the filler pipe, so let's get in there and see what's up.

This leak is caused by the flexible rubber joint, connecting the filler pipe to the halfway tank, becoming hard with age. This hardness means that the filler pipe and the halfway tank can't quite line up as intended, and a slight gap has opened up.

The stiff joint also forces the filler neck too high, popping the filler cap ring off its clips

The fuel pipe rubber joint is unobtainable now, so to stop the filler pipe ring popping off, I secured it properly like an Evo2. I drilled through each plastic pretend Allan key bolt head, through the car body and rubber gasket, into the filler pipe inner mounting flange. I screwed small self tappers through and

fixed the whole assembly in place.

I did not drill the topmost hole, because the fuel tank breather pipe joins the

filler pipe behind the top hole, and a screw might pierce this.

This worked well, but didn't solve the hard joint pipe problem, this was still weeping on fill ups.

I needed to replace this old rubber pipe, so I removed the spare wheel, seat back latch, seat side bolster, lower seat belt bolt, parcel shelf support, and the inner side panel.

I removed the filler pipe from its mounting and unstrapped the halfway tank, after undoing the jubilee clips I could remove the stiff old pipe. An internet search confirmed no original style pipes are available, so I needed to improvise.

I went to a local hose specialist which has served us well for many years,

Trax Hydraulics in Burscough. They had a metre length of 54mm diameter fuel safe silicone hose, they sold me a short length. The Lancia pipe is 52mm internal diameter, Trax said 54mm would probably be ok, just watch for kinks when doing up the jubilee clips.

52mm pipe is available, but none was in stock that day.

Self tappers pretending to be

Allan bolts pretending to be real

Inside boot waiting to be stripped

Filler pipe exposed

New pipe cut to length

Click picture to visit Trax

I cut the new pipe to the required length and slipped it onto the inside tank pipe, place the jubilee clips on, then pushed the filler neck in. I secured the filler neck and the inner tank before tightening up the jubilee clips. The new pipe fitted comfortably in place, and the clips tighten up without kinks.

The new hose allows movement between the components again, meaning they aren't under tension and give a good fuel tight seal.

A dab of satin black on the filler ring screws makes that look original again, and a check to see if the locking filler cap works correctly completes this job.

Drilled ring ready to refit

Job almost completed, just vent pipes to connect