[unclebilly]

In university I didn’t have much money. I still don’t but I had a lot less then.

I rebuilt a 88 Toyota 4Runner that was a rollover with only 6000 kms on it. It was a multi year project.

Part of getting it going after it sat for the better part of 10 years was replacing a crusty, seized in tank fuel pump. When I finally got it on the road, after the first few tanks of gas, I figured a good thing to do was to put in a bottle of fuel system cleaner... bad idea.

This resulted in all of the rust in the fuel tank coming loose and plugging the fuel filter on a daily basis. I actually added a Racor fuel filter so I could drain the sediment as needed.

The good thing about this vehicle was that there was a tank access panel under the rear seat that could be removed which allowed access to the 5 or 6 screws on the top of the fuel tank to remove a ~4.5” cover that was integral with the fuel pump mount and tank sensing unit...

One day, after several daily fuel filter sediment bowl removals, I decided that I should run the tank low in gas, remove the remaining gas, and vacuum out the sediment from the tank with a shop vac... one problem, I didn’t have a shop vac and being a poor engineering student, I couldn’t afford to buy one either.

Then I decided to try the car wash vacuum at the local Payless gas station.

My then girlfriend, now wife and I pulled in there one HOT afternoon, she went to the ice cream shop next to the gas station and got 2 10L ice cream pails while I removed the tank access panels... when she came back with the pails, I began scooping fuel from the tank with a yogurt container that was small enough to fit through the access hole...

We removed about 10L of gas and put it about 20’ away. I then put my quarter into the vacuum and began operation sediment removal... this went great for maybe 20 seconds before the flames started to shoot out of the top of the vacuum...

We frantically put the hose back and pushed the 4-runner away from the vacuum which we couldn’t shut off. They run in a timer and it ran and ran and ran... it ran for my full 25 cent interval...

One of the gas station attendants saw the black smoke billowing out of the vacuum and came over to ask if it was on fire... I told him that I was pretty sure that it was indeed on fire... he told me that some idiot must have sucked a plastic bag into it again.

We nonchalantly poured our gas back into the gas tank, buttoned up the access panel and drove home where I dropped the tank and pulled out an icecream pail of sediment, rinsed it out with water, and reinstalled the tank.

It never acted up again after that.

The vacuum was out of order for about a month and the paint was completely burnt off of the top of it and all rusty... damn those cursed idiots who suck plastic bags up into car wash vacuums...