Tried adding Hot Shots. Now stuck with a hose sticking out of my fuel tank <sigh>

[paustin]

< PICTURE ADDED / ATTACHED >

First, happy holidays. Second I could use a little bit of help. Adding Hot Shots has me stuck.

So I decided it would be a brilliant idea to add Hot Shots to my tank on a regular basis. Unfortunately, when pouring Hot Shots into my tank, it just overflows. In my momentary wisdom, I grab a funnel that I have that has a hose on the end. I slip it into my tank, successfully pour the Hot Shots in, then take a moment to congratulate myself on my wisdom. That warm and cozy feeling only lasted until I tried to pull the hose out. It is stuck in there like a tick on a hound. There appears to be what I initially thought was some sort of a flap, about 2 or 3 inches in. attempting to move it out of the way with a screwdriver fails completely.

Now I have a hose sticking out of my gas tank, and when attempting to add fuel, I can only do it in dribbles, taking about 15 minutes to add 10 gallons of fuel.

Any assistance that you might provide a knucklehead of my caliber would be gloriously accepted.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[Rlaf75]

How far down did you shove the hose?

 

[mtnrider]

The trap door is probably pinching (closing) on the hose when you pull it. Try slipping something thin and ridged down along the side the hose to keep the door open and pull the hose out. You may have to move it around a little to get it in the right place to hold it open.

.

 

[fireflymedic]

I was thinking a thick wire shoved down spout. Mite do it

 

[Jim BB]

well the only thing i can think of doing is removing the filler neck and pull hose out that way ! reassemble !
that way no damage will be done to anything ! rather than putting something else down the neck and have it get stuck or cause damage ! I know it sucks and probably very cold where you are and it is a lot of work to remove the neck but buy time you keep messing around with different things and wasting time you will have already pulled it and put it back together !!!
Then make a note not to put anything in the filler neck except for gas nozzle !!!
But that is what i would do but hey that's me !!!

 

[paustin]

How far down did you shove the hose?

About 5 or 6 inches.

 

[paustin]

The trap door is probably pinching (closing) on the hose when you pull it. Try slipping something thin and ridged down along the side the hose to keep the door open and pull the hose out. You may have to move it around a little to get it in the right place to hold it open.

.

Can you describe the trap door mechanism? I have a picture of it from the top. I just attached it to my original post. I see what *appears* to be a trap door, but it is absolutely not budging. I tried tapping on it with a screwdriver and it seems completely solid. I also tried prying it from the bottom (where the hose is jammed) and that did not work either.

Suggestions?

 

[paustin]

The trap door is probably pinching (closing) on the hose when you pull it. Try slipping something thin and ridged down along the side the hose to keep the door open and pull the hose out. You may have to move it around a little to get it in the right place to hold it open.

.

I tried that without success. I added a picture. Is what you see the "trap door" you reference? I can easily get a screwdriver under it, but is seems very solidly stuck. Neither trying to swing it out of the way, nor tapping on that bump/extrusion did anything. I would have thought that it would simply slide out of the way like a hinged "trap door". I do not understand why it wont. Thanks for your input!

 

[paustin]

well the only thing i can think of doing is removing the filler neck and pull hose out that way ! reassemble !
that way no damage will be done to anything ! rather than putting something else down the neck and have it get stuck or cause damage ! I know it sucks and probably very cold where you are and it is a lot of work to remove the neck but buy time you keep messing around with different things and wasting time you will have already pulled it and put it back together !!!
Then make a note not to put anything in the filler neck except for gas nozzle !!!
But that is what i would do but hey that's me !!!

Whuff. That seems like an absolute crap-ton of work for something so dumb-assedly simple. And, yeah, getting down to 10 degrees, and I am in Austin, TX in an RV with my plumbing frozen solid. My workload is pretty full for this kind of self-induced foolishness. I added a picture to my original post. Can you take a look and see if you might have another suggestion?

 

[Atcer2018]

I don’t own a diesel so your fuel filler neck is probably different than a gasser but this may be worth a shot. As another poster stated the trap door is pinching against the hose and won’t allow it to be pulled back out. It’s probably a huge PITA to pull the fill hose from the bottom so you can pull the funnel hose out from the bottom which works out with the trap door. Try this, take an empty plastic two liter bottle of soda or water. Cut the top and bottom off with a razor so only the smooth center piece remains. Remove the label and cut out a section of the remaining plastic so when you bend it into a circle it’s basically the diameter or slightly smaller than the fuel fill neck. Work the thin but rigid plastic down the fuel fill neck around the stuck hose. You’ll feel when it it’s the trap door and you may have to wiggle the funnel hose or push it slightly further down to allow the plastic shim can get past the trap door. The plastic shim will keep the trap door from digging into your funnel hose so you can pull it out. Once it’s out the shim will collapse but it’s thin and flexible enough to not get stuck in the trap door.

 

[ThunderMug95]

Could always try the ol “push the cork into the bottle trick” as a last ditch effort…

 

[mtnrider]

I tried that without success. I added a picture. Is what you see the "trap door" you reference? I can easily get a screwdriver under it, but is seems very solidly stuck. Neither trying to swing it out of the way, nor tapping on that bump/extrusion did anything. I would have thought that it would simply slide out of the way like a hinged "trap door". I do not understand why it wont. Thanks for your input!

There is a second trap door further down in the spout(maybe 8-10" in). That is what it is caught on I bet.

.

 

[Jim BB]

ok i see that it is the flap that is catching the hose ! see if you can use a 6" or longer screw driver or something similar to push open flap and hold it open and pull tube out ! flap will need to be almost if not all the way open other wise it will bind

 

[mtnrider]

ok i see that it is the flap that is catching the hose ! see if you can use a 6" or longer screw driver or something similar to push open flap and hold it open and pull tube out ! flap will need to be almost if not all the way open other wise it will bind

There is a second flap below that one. I doubt the one in the picture is the issue, it's the one further down the tube

 

[GlennRH]

Ya know from the looks of that thing I can't see any hinge points it would swing on. That indentation in the center must connect to something that's part of the mechanism.

 

[06 Dodge]

There is a second flap below that one. I doubt the one in the picture is the issue, it's the one further down the tube

^^^^^
What he said...

YES there is a 2nd flap further down an most likely why the hose will not come back out, only thing I can think of off the top of my head a long 12+ inch skinny screw driver to push open the 2nd flap, that 2nd flap is why I have a Trans fluid funnel that I use for adding additives to the tank...

 

[mikeru]

Ya know from the looks of that thing I can't see any hinge points it would swing on. That indentation in the center must connect to something that's part of the mechanism.

The hinge is on the inside, at the top of the flap. You can't see it because it's hidden.

 

[Rlaf75]

This thread reminds me of this lol

 

[2020PW]

Remove the hose camp from the filler next to the tank and pull it out.

 

[A_mod_too_far]

If the parts store has a long neck funnel for that type of stuff, shove it in there and then you should be able to remove the tube