On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:40:28 -0700, Midnite wrote:

On Sat, 06 Mar 2010 10:24:45 -0500, willshak
wrote:

You know, the kind that has a solid plastic float that operates a flat
screw type axle to turn a needle in the cap showing the amount of fuel
left. These plastic floats seem to allow gas to permeate the float,
giving a less than correct fuel level.
I suppose I can buy a new cap/gauge/float assembly for this particular
tank, but that would only solve the problem for a while until that float
gets heavier.
I wonder if I can paint some sort of material on the float to make it
more resistant to permeation of the gas? I know the material has to be
non-soluble in gasoline. Ideas??


Pretty much have to buy a new cap. If gas has already soaked into the
float, then no type of sealer is going to stick. Even if it did, it
would weigh down the float and give you a wrong reading, which is the
problem you are trying to solve.

Well, the float will sit more or less on the surface; in my lawn tractor
the tank's maybe 10" deep, so even if the float sits 1/2" lower with
sealer, that's "only" a 5% error (I say only because the thing bounces
around so much in use that it's pretty much impossible to take an
accurate reading anyway).

It's possible to get car body filler that's rated for gas contact, so
that might be worth a try if the float is holed in a single place (but if
it is, a soldering iron would probably work to melt the plastic and seal
the hole anyway).

If the plastic's deteriorated and is letting gas through all over, I
think I'd be looking at cutting the old float apart and somehow attaching
a new one to it...

cheers

Jules