Surreptitious.....

[oldeskewltoy]

Well... the car is a bit higher now on stands(about 18" -20" off the ground).

Jeff and I dropped the AE71 fuel tank....




It looks quite a bit like an AE86 efi tank......


......but, there are 5 significant differences on the outside.
1&2) the AE86 tank has larger opening for the pick up/pump hole, and the filler neck hole, then the AE71 tank has.
3) the filler neck flange on the tank is slightly different angle
4) The AE71 tank has an external venting hose
5) The AE71 tank uses a flexible(rubber) filler neck with a firm mount to the car at the top, the AE86 tank uses a rigid filler neck that never actually mounts to the car at all, just the tank.



the reason I pointed out the differences above... because all of them make using the AE71 filler neck impossible with the AE86 tank. Why is that a concern???

The ONLY fitment issue... is the rigid filler neck on the AE86 tank needs to be straightened, or bent up about 3/8". Right now, I can actually strap the tank into the car, but the filler neck touches the filler neck opening in the inner body - not allowing a fuel cap to be fitted. I've already "adjusted"(read hammered) some of the inner body for clearence. I've had to do this inner body work, since the rubber fill hose on the AE71 had no clearence issue. As easy as it might sound to just bend the accordian section, that really won't fix the problem. The upper part of the AE86 filler neck needs to have some of the angle removed.





Oh... 1 EXTREMELY odd similarity - the AE71 has 3 pipes coming from the pick up assembly... so does the AE86. What is so odd about that??? The AE71 was carb only... no efi, so no fuel return line! So if there is no fuel return line... why would the AE71 tank have the same number of connections???