Fuel System Assembly Delayed... Hose and Damper Debris

It's now almost 1 pm. I was going to assemble my home grown fuel system in the tank when I noticed some dust and black debris sitting in the tank. I had vacuumed when I finished working last night. Now when I think about it the same thing happened yesterday. So flipped on the handy dandy shop vac and started to vacuum. As I moved the tank around I heard something sliding about! My first inclination was to think that I'd left some "tool" inside. I counted my little sanding sponges and they were all there....hmmm, perplexing.

There is a shelf with a hole inside the tank that holds the fuel pump, retaining ring, damper, screen assembly. That shelf unfortunately is welded to the inside of the tank. It seems to be made of sheet aluminum. How and where it's welded makes for some small areas for debris to get trapped and is virtually inaccessible. However, I juggled and jiggled until a piece of debris was sticking out of it's hidy hole. I was able to worry it enough to break some of it away.

At first I thought it was part of the damper. And while some of it may be I removed a chunk large enough to see it is part of a fuel hose ! (see picture below) It isn't part of the hose I removed when I opened up the tank, so it must be from a prior installation. The owner must never have bothered to search for debris when replacing the system before.

I started working on this two hours ago. After removing the largest piece I shook the tank and there is another large piece in the tank. Who knows how long it will take to get the last piece out? It must be roundish because it doesn't seem to be peeking though the same hole.

After another 45 minutes, this time working with a piece of wire coat hanger instead of a plastic putty knife, I was able to remove what seems to be the last of the old hose. A piece a bit larger than the last came out. On to Assembly.