hi okay so i have an airlock in my tank. i literally have to hold the gas pump at 1/3 speed to fill or it locks up. my question is qhat could the source of the problem be, and would it affect my fuel consumption?

 

I second the question.

 

My guess is that the air return line that goes from the top of the tank to near the filler door is clogged. Its basically to relieve the pressure. It should have no effect on your milage.
Also, try moving the nozzle out a bit. On my wife's old car if you had the nozzle all the way in the gas would splash up and trip the pump to turn off, but would work fine if you moved it back an inch or so.

 

okay so it is the air return line... i searched the forum and looked through the shop manual for my 86 rx7 gxl na, bu there is nothing in there on how to amend this problem... how do i get to the air return line, i know it is parallel to the filler line, can i get to it from the hatch?

if someone can advise me on how to do this i would be in your debt... forever, and i would definaltey have the time to fulfill my promise as half my day would be freed up from not having to stand at the pump for 4 hours.

 

get access to an air compressor and gun style attachment
Remove the carpet from the boot
unclip the fuel pump harness, located on the driver side rear strut tower
unscrew the 4 x head screws that hold the pump cover on.
push the rubber bung thru the cover so you have more room to work
open the fuel cap and run the engine. it should stop shortly after starting as it now has no gas as the fuel pump is disconected.
get some pliers and take the hose clamp off the left side hose and remove the hose from the tank.
got to the engine bay
locate the fuel retun line and remove the hose from the line.
put the air hose (gun end) into the fuel line (going to the tank not the engine ) and blow out the line. This should hopefully remove any crap stuck in the line ( which is quite bad by the way as it has already been through two filters and has luckly made it past yopur injectors without clogging them up, (if your lucky))

 

Also, check the condition of the "check and cut" valve. I don't think the post above is good advice. It doesn't address the problem at hand, and you should not be blowing compressed air into you fuel tank (thus creating an awesome fuel vapour which will exit through the open gas cap...).

 

na na na you read me wrong. i said to remove the hose from the tank so you'll be blowing air through the hose to clear it of any crap/sludge that may be in there.
It is not really a way to fix your problem just a way to clean out your line and not get any crap that may be blocking it in your tank and eliminate that as an issue.