Installing new gas tank and pumps

fullboogie

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Well, I'm about halfway through getting my new tank and pumps installed. Here's the progress so far. As stated in my two prior posts, my tank and pumps were rotted out from sitting for over 4 years:

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First, I will recommend getting the car on a lift if at all possible. Like many things, it can be done on jack stands, but it is a huge PITA. You need to get the whole car off the ground, and particularly the rear end. I have SUV jack stands under there (and another set, because I'm paranoid about being crushed and laying there for days while my family goes about their business and doesn't even notice that I'm gone):

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On the top side, remove the lower part of the rear seat, knock the hold-down rings off, and remove the contraptions on both sides of the tank. In order to do so, you must first remove two of these lovely little ladies. Straight to hell for the guy who invented these things:

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Next, drop the over-axle pipes. This is the main reason you want the car as high as possible, because these things do nothing but get in the way. If the car is high enough, you can get the driver's side completely out. The passenger side can be pushed to the side.

To drop the gas tank (mine was bone dry), you need to remove these two bolts:

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They are Torx 50 plus IP size, which of course nobody carries except Snap On. After spending an hour on the phone trying to locate someone in my area who is a dealer, I gave up and attacked them with a normal Torx 50. It can be done, but it has to be done right. I sprayed PB Blaster on the bolt heads first, and then sprayed it on top of the bolts and let it sit overnight. You can reach the top of the threads through the little access holes next to the bolt hole - it is the lowest one of the three pictured:

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The trick is to work slowly, working the bolts back and forth with a breaker bar. If it gets too hard to turn (which it will, because the Ford employee who was in charge of the blue Loctite went crazy with it), you have plenty of room to grab the bolt head with Vice Grips and turn it a few turns.

Once the bolts are out, the tank will mysteriously stay clinging to the underside of the car. You will need a prybar to yank the crap out it, and it will finally drop. This is what you will end up with:

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By the way, you can see in this picture why lots of people recommend dropping the tank to get at the upper control arm bolts if you're doing a swap:

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Just waiting for my new filter socks to come in so I can assemble the whole thing out of the car, and stab it home. Given how difficult it is to remove the pump assembly from the hole that doesn't quite line up with hole in the floor board (thanks, Ford), it seems the best way to go.

Even with the car so high up in the air, the driveshaft removed, and the exhaust out of the way, there was barely enough room to remove the tank. And I mean an extra 1/2" anywhere, and it would have been stuck.

This was meant to be a mildly informative, mostly tongue-in-cheek DIY thread. I really don't have the energy to document the whole thing, just the parts that drove me crazy.

I'm tired - going to take a shower, drink some beer, an watch TV. :pepper:
 
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GT Premi

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Anybody else notice how he flipped us the bird in all the pix with his hand in them? LOL

I hear ya about the being crushed part. Whenever I'm crawling under my car, I have 4 jack stands, 2 or 4 ramps, AND 2 hydraulic jacks! If it collapses on top of me, I can't really be mad because with that many failsafes in place, it HAD to be my time. LOL
 

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