milano woes

[Carson or Wendy <dammwood@domain.elided>]

Well I will pass along my recent experiences in the hopes that nobody 
has to go through my latest trials.
My milano started to leak gas, mostly could only smell it in the cabin 
first thing in the morning. At first I couldn't see anything suspicious 
from underneath but as time wore on the two fittings on the bottom of 
the tank started to look wet. During the later stages while driving to 
work (there's a real nice lefthand sweeper) there would be trails in the 
pavement that I would later learn was gas flowing under the tank and out 
under the plastic fender bottom behind the rear wheel. Finally I can out 
one morning and the was a reasonable puddle on the floor. Decided not to 
drive that anymore and push my 1980 X1/9 into daily service for a while. 
When I pulled out the fuel tank I found that it had rusted through 
between the two fittings on the bottom of the tank that lead to the pump 
and back from the engine.
When the factory installs the tank they put a foam seal on the bottom to 
keep out the environment where the two fittings go through the body. My 
tank had rusted from the outside in from this foam holding water against 
the metal tank 100% of the time. The rest of the tank was in fantastic 
condition.
So being way out in the sticks like I am I just got my tank welded up 
with a small plate seam welded over the rust. Here comes my first 
mistake, I didn't read the maintenance manual before I did all this or I 
would have found out that where the big banjo bolt threads in on the 
bottom of the tank is a removable (plastic) strainer..... When I got my 
tank welded the strainer melted in the tank. I was later able to get the 
bits out but now I can't put in a new strainer. The welding also totally 
screwed the teflon coating on the inside of the tank which is flaking a 
bit right behind the actual welds.
Skipping ahead a bit, when I finally got everything back together and 
started pouring gas in. BTW, 12 liters from bone dry to the reserve 
light going out with the car level. I was always wondering how clean I 
got it after the repair. I had flushed the tank out as best I could at 
all kinds of weird angles with a garden hose. Then again with methyl 
hydrate, and finally coated the bottom with marvel mystery oil before 
putting gas in.
Well yesterday my fuel pump packed it in. Apart from learning I have a 4 
volt loss from the battery to my pump I also learned my pump had just 
jammed up from crap from my repair. So far I consider myself lucky as 
putting full 12v right to the pump got it spinning again but only after 
a few jumps and coughs.
I don't know what to do about inservice milano's and the foam in your 
cars except maybe try and dig it out with a screwdriver, this would be a 
pain as you would have to work from under and in the trunk.
I do know the I will never have a modern metal fuel tank welded up again.
On a charitable note, if anybody has a good tank they want to give me 
for cheap (maybe the cost of shipping :-0) I would be willing to listen....

--
Carson Damm
Ft. McMurray, AB
Canada

87 Alfa Milano Platinum
77 Alfa Spider
61 Alfa Giulietta spider
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