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Leaking fuel tee

greybeard52

New member
I bought a pair of plastic tees from my local parts store. They seemed to fit my 7mm cloth braided fuel hose, made in Germany, but I discovered a leak from the tee on both sides today. Just to double check, is the hose for a 1986 R80RT a 7mm hose? And I'm planning to order a metal tee from Bob's BMW, but are there others that people have had success with? I was hoping to buy from a parts store locally, but not much metric stuff in Wyoming. It's all American trucks and SUVs and Jeeps. Which is fine. I have a truck and a Camaro. But I usually have to order parts on line for my VW bus and my Beemer. Thanks.
 
cloth braided

Do yourself a favor and ditch the cloth braided fuel line for a good fuel line material. After many leaks and replacements of the cloth crap on my bike, I went to a fuel injection line from the auto parts store. Costs less and lasts 10 times longer.

Now instead of repacking the cloth line every year, I have replaced the FI, line every five years and only because of my fault not the line's. St.
 
YMMV...I've used only cloth braided lines on all my bikes and have never had any fuel leaks because of it. They do get changed periodically, but not because of leaks.

Maybe it has something to do with local environment. In south Texas, it rarely gets that cold. But in the northern climes, sitting in the garage, the rubber will get very cold. So temp cycles might play into it. :dunno
 
Could be

Kurt, of course there are variables involved. Any vehicle that survives NY winters regardless if it is stored or ridden is rare.

Who knows, maybe I just got poor quality cloth line? I just know since I stopped using it, I have had way less problems. St.
 
Braided Cloth Fuel Hose and Tee

I remember having braided cloth fuel hoses on my 1971 VW Bug in 1975. I only kept the car for three years and I lived in Austin, Tx so I never replaced it. My 1973 VW Bus had braided hoses too and I was still in Austin. I kept it two years before trading it. No problems with it either.
But, I live in Wyoming and some years it starts snowing in October and we don't see the ground again until April or May. And we do have sub zero temps for a week or more at a time. My motorcycles live in the garage on a trickle charger, but the garage is not heated unless I'm working out there and have the propane forced air heater going.
I'm going to Montana for two weeks to visit kids and grandkids, and I plan to stop at the BMW dealer in Missoula to see if they have a tee. There is also a foreign car repair shop in Bozeman that I have bought new old parts from for my 1978 VW Camper Bus, so he may have a tee. Otherwise, I'm going to order it and a rubber plug for the timing hole on the engine from William at boxer2valve.com. I've been watching him restore and convert a R80RT like mine to a R80S and picked up some good tips.
If the braided hoses leak with the new tee, I'm going for some rubber line. I bought new hoses from German Auto Supply in Canada, that are rubber for my VW Camper Bus, and installed them 3 years ago. So far, no leaks.
Thanks for the feedback. Bill
 
My town has a VW bug specialist and that's where I purchased cloth covered line. It was cool because it had "Made in Germany" in big silver letters printed on it down the length.

Just keep it fresh and near new and it will pay you back by being easy to pull off the petcock when you need to remove the tank. The all rubber stuff usually sticks hard to the petcock after a little while and doesn't twist and turn as easily.

7mm is the correct inside diameter, but one needs to watch the outside diameter too, as it needs to make the crossover through the air filter area.
 
The early versions of the cloth woven reinforced fuel line was badly affected by ethanol in the fuel. I have no idea whether it still is or not. I suspect that being European in origin it probably still is because most of Europe does not adulterate the fuel with corn squeezings.
 
The VW cloth covered fuel line has the Cool Factor.
I love the look and feel of it.
Its on my R80, and has been forever, no problems for me!
Nick
 
I have personally had no end of trouble with the cloth covered fuel line (as cool and stylish as it is!) starting maybe 3-4 years ago. Perhaps the compound used in the line has changed, and perhaps it's just modern gasoline (I can't always get ethanol free where I live). It seems I am always replacing section, after section, as the season wears on, with the exception of the crossover member, which appears to be not only original (1979 R80/7), but also of a more standard, non-braided construction. I have since switched to the less cool standard rubber type fuel line, and have had zero issues since. I'll take 'less cool' over a bike fire any day.

ECJ
 
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