I took my car for a long ride yesterday for the first time. I went 30 miles on the highway and got off the exit and all of a sudden the car breaks down I put 6 gallons in before I left in addition to whatever else was in there. Since I dont have a working fuel guage at the moment...I went the the back of the car and knocked on the tank....it sounded empty. A friend ran over with a 2 gallon can and I filled it.
The car soon started up and drove it over the the station. When I tried to fill it up...All of the gas was dripping out and it looks like from the top of the tank. My car normally drips a bit from that area when filling but never this much. It was almost as if nothing was going in.

Botom line i left it at the station and hopefully they can look at it or I will tow it to another place. in hopes I can get it ready to drive up to the Saratoga show this weekend.

I have a new new sending unit I was planning to put in in hopesit will get the gas guage working....Any other suggestions it could be with the gas going in?

The car started and ran with starting fluid.

Also the car does not leak when running...only when filling!

Sounds like the filler neck is broken. Just do a good inspection when you drop the tank.

I recently replaced my tank because the neck->tank joint was leaking. It only leaked for me when I filled the tank all the way up, or had the rear end of the car downhill.

I bet you had a small leak that just got a lot bigger. The neck is soldered to the tank, and maybe that whole joint let go and the neck isn't pointing inside the tank anymore. Some JB weld putty might get it working enough to get you home. A new tank isn't too bad. I think mine was like $100 or so from Summit. Only issue is that my old cap didn't fit well on the new tank. Otherwise the tank swap was really easy.

Id drop the tank, its not hard. replace the sending unit and the o-ring make sure the locking ring stays centered.

But before you put the tank back in, fill it with water and a little detergent. rinse it out a few times and resolder the neck back on with a propane torch. its real easy. i used to do these 1 every couple of months when i worked at the Texaco station.

BTW , trivia.. the Texaco station i worked at is in southhampton MA. it was the station the movie who's afraid of virginia wolf the garage scenes were shot there and at the right next door at Red Basket - 151 College Highway with richard burton and elizabeth taylor. They had signed pix all over. the movie was shot way before i worked there 1966, i was 6.
it was a cool garage , the owners dad whom had passed away left it to him. The only reason his dad built the garage was to have a place to restore his old cars . They had stacks of model t and b engines,frames body parts ,etc there was a terraplane, hupmoble, and a 1912 cadillac in almost pefect condition (stored inside) somebody from california bought it for 100k back in 1979. there was NOS parts for a ton of old cars. they sold it all off and made a bundle.

Hi19FB restorer68:

Sounds like there may be other gremlins in the picture with the car stalling out (gas mileage isn't great with these old engines but 5 mpg?). I had the same thing happen to me with gas going everywhere 1 month ago when the bird was still on the car hauler; gas was dribbling out from up top of the tank. For me, it turned out to be a 2-inch id, 3-inch long piece of rubber soft line hose that had dried out and cracked. The hose runs from the fill point to the top of the tank. You can remove your license plate and check it out or drop the tank, replace the tank sender. Easy fix in the end.

Kevin-

Thanks everyone for the help. Got it fixed. It was a little bit of everything you all suggested. Filler hose rotted away and top of the gas tank sending unit was bent and nearly gone.

that and along with a few other things but shes back on the road. Unfortunately I had to miss the Saratoga show but there is always next year.