gas cap latch: how the heck do you install one?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Just put a new driver's fender on my 84.

for the life of me I can't figure out how you get the spring, cotter pin, catch mechanism, cable and cable stop to all play nicely together.

Anyone have any advice on how to put this together?

Thanks

Shaun

[TurboRuf]

I have the same problem. I had to remove the spring a while back, hasn't worked since. Anybody with tips/tricks or photos?

[techweenie]

It's easily one of the most frustrating things to do on a 911.

You have to 'capture' the spring and collapse it -- a very thin nylon tie wrap is best -- then put the spring loop & latch into alignment with the support holes and slide the cotter pin through. Then cut the tie wrap...

As you can see, the problem is collapsing and holding the spring, since you can't use anything much larger than the spring when you put it in its place.

This is a task that has a lot more dimension than can be described in a few lines here. I think I spent a total of 4 hours doing it last time. Patience and inventiveness pays off.

[Paul Thomas]

I opened the jaws of my vice, held the halves of the latch and the spring with one hand (between the jaws) and slowly turn the vice handle with the other hand to compress the spring between the 2 halves. When they get to the right spot, insert cotter pin.

After trying ten other ways to get it, this took about 10 seconds.

Paul

[djmcmath]

Tech's all over it. Read a few of NoStatic's "zen" posts in the OT forum and it'll make a bit more sense. It's all about patience, 'coz you're going to get it almost right like 400 times before you get it right the one time that you need. Seems like when I last pulled my fenders, my room-mate (who has the hands of a surgeon) did the deed using a piece of uninsulated wire.

Best Bet:
1 - Sit down and think about it.
2 - Have a beer, think for a while longer.
3 - Come up with a plan.
4 - Try it about a billion times. It'll rely largely on sheer luck, more than any aspect of skill.
5 - Get it right all of one time. Push the gas cap shut, then pop it, like 20 times in celebration.



Dan

[TurboRuf]

I think I'll go grab that beer first and think about it.

Thanks for the tips.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Very unfortunately out of beer, but here's how I did it, took 1 minute or so.

attach catch with cotter pin (don't bend ends), attach cable and cable stop with about 3/32 of an inch to spare. I know, WTF is 3/32. All I can say is that it was greater than 1/16th and less than 1/8th.

then pull the cotter pin out.

then pull latch away as much as possible, insert spring top in first, then with a small screwdriver, push bottom of spring down while pushing catch into place. Not as difficult as it sounds, friction/tension holds things in place.

Then insert cotter pin (definitely use a new one)

Then grab the end of the cable with a small wire cutter and adjust cable stop.

Going out to get beer.

[techweenie]

Okay. Don't laugh, I'm not an artist.

The spring is in red (like your face is gonna be after a few hours).

The yellow arrows point to where you want to apply force. It's not enough to 'close' the wire tangs, you have to pull them together or the nylon ties (blue) will pop off.

If you can collapse the spring tangs down small enough to fit in the housing, you'll be left with wrestling with the cotter pin. You may end up putting a smaller-diameter pin in there because the coils of the spring will not allow the original back through...

If all goes well, you can reach in there with a #11 xacto blade and cut the nylon ties.

O! Important: wear eye protection. That little spring can fly quite a ways.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally posted by techweenie
Okay. Don't laugh, I'm not an artist.

The spring is in red (like your face is gonna be after a few hours).

The yellow arrows point to where you want to apply force. It's not enough to 'close' the wire tangs, you have to pull them together or the nylon ties (blue) will pop off.

If you can collapse the spring tangs down small enough to fit in the housing, you'll be left with wrestling with the cotter pin. You may end up putting a smaller-diameter pin in there because the coils of the spring will not allow the original back through...

If all goes well, you can reach in there with a #11 xacto blade and cut the nylon ties.

O! Important: wear eye protection. That little spring can fly quite a ways.

This is going up on my fridge! Love it!

[liza0_13]

guys you have saved me hours just spent 2 years restoring 78 sc all done apart from this, mot ( UK annual road test ) on Thursday first the car has had for 17 years (been stored since 1996)

[RSWiser]

Where do you get the Spring. I haven't seen one for sale. I did buy a used latch mechanism but near as I can tell you have take the fender off to put it in.