How to drop the fuel tank and replace the fuel pump.

ok, i've looked all over this website and i guess im not seeing it but im sure there is a "how to" on replaceeing the fuel pump for a 91 EB, and how to drop a tank, i just cant find it, and hopefuly someone can direct me to the right place and hopefuly that place has pics to help! lol thanks much

This is the only one I know of. No pics but helpful nevertheless.

two ways to replace the pump / sending unit ...



1 ) to cut a access hole in the body ( inside the truck in the cargo area) to gain access to the pump .

2) jack the truck up and remove the skid plate , undo the fuel lines and the straps then drop it .

...either way has their pro's and con's .which ever way you decide just remember to mark the direction of the fuel lines as they meet up on the top of the pump / tank ( just mark it with sharpie marker) a new or different angle may cause stress on the fuel / return lines and may cause them to get damaged. the tank ring .....if it's a 91 then chances are it's pretty rusted and you may need a new one .....to remove it just get a punch and work it around the ring in one direction ( hitting each tab on the ring as you go ) this way free's up all of them together if they are cemented on the tank from decades of road grime and rust .a new o-ring should come with the pump you buy but if not then that has to be replaced as well .

if you dont mind cutting the floor on your explorer, there is a to: cut the floor to make a access panel above the fuel pump/sending unit.
replacing the pump is a few mins once you get the sending unit out.

I just finished doing this to mine. It took a lot longer than I expected just to drop the stupid skid plate. Once the plate was dropped it was very easy to get the tank down. Everything was really rusty oner there. I now have everything back up and it doesn't work. now I have to drop it all again. It would be easier to cut the whole.

did you recheck the harness connector on the left frame rail ? if you had a lot of dirt in or around the connector you may have to spray it with electronic cleaner...mine had a lot of stuff caked on and i had to do that .

I'm in the process of changing mine out via the "access panel" method. I've dropped the tank on my last truck and although it wasn't the worst thing ever, it was all the work again to put it back up. If you get under your truck and look at the skid-plate/metal straps you pretty much just start unbolting stuff until the tank drops down.

thanks for the fast replys guys, wasnt expecting that fast heheh, i think i will drop the tank, mainly cuz with my luck i will blow something up and my wife doesnt like the idea of me cutting a hole in the floor, so new question, whats the skid plate and where would i find a pic of one? lol
this wont be for a while as i dont have the money to get the pump-sending unit floater and whatnot, plus the jackstands and tools to take off the fuel lines

The skidplate is just a protective metal plate that mounts underneath the gas tank. I may be wrong but I think they only had them on 4x4s. So if you have 2wd you may not have to worry about that. I don't know of a pic but it's one of those things that if you just crawl under the truck you'll understand.

yeah mine is 4x4 so i most likely have it
i think im just worried about it all falling on my head after i unbolt everything, then trying to re put it back up after i have everything on lol

mines a 2 wheel drive and mines gota skid plate .


....that sounds right about the gas/vapors ...... i was just thinking about the level of gas near the top of the tank if he was going to cut a access but if your dropping then yeah you want that fuel gone ...nothing like trying to wrestle 100lb's ( just a guess ) under the truck .....

Speaking of fuel tank, my guage is totally dead! Must I drop the tank? The wiring on the sender unit is no good? What is the usual replacement for such a debacle? Hey James 909 is that disc brake swap a huge deal or what? thanks in advance!

James909 said:

This is the only one I know of. No pics but helpful nevertheless.

Click to expand...

Does your fuel gauge stay on empty all of the time? If so it's probably because the float leaked and sunk to the bottom. It's a common problem. The only way to fix it is to drop the tank (or make an access hole) and replace the sender or repair the float.

The disc brake swap wasn't bad at all. My truck was down for a weekend but that was working slowly with a lot of breaks and I had to go to work most of one of the days. I replaced the whole rear end with one from a '99 and it was a very straightforward swap. It was my first time doing something like that and I had no trouble at all. If you're considering it I say go for it.

just one more thing about about the tank.....when i dropped my tank i gave me a good advantage to see the condition of the entire fuel cell. after i got mine removed i was able to flush it out really good and clean all the years of crap in there.tho mine really did not have a lot of stuff floating in there it did however have a ring of hardened stuff right around the pick-up screen .i had to scrape it away with a penny .but after that i took a water hose flushed it out and then got my air compressor and dried it ( squeeky clean )

upon removeing the skid plate i did notice that rocks had made thier way between the plate and the gas tank and were cutting into the plastic ( not good ) .so before i reinstalled the tank i took it and wiped down the tank with armor-all and even the rubber bumper cushions that are attached to the tank to rejuvinate them . plus the filler neck and the vapor return hose's i did armor-all to them to ( that will most likelly keep them alive a little longer because their rubber after all ) .

putting the tank back was not to bad ...i used a car jack and a short piece of 2x8 to lift the tank and hold it while i attached the straps and then used it again to put the skid plate back up while i started the bolts.

but then again this all took me about 1 hour to do maybe a hour and a half ...not as quick as cutting a access and more labor to drop.

new question
ramps or jackstands? personaly i like ramps better, and im just a little iffy with jackstands, as im not quite sure where to put them and do i have to do both front and back?

I used ramps when I changed my fuel pump. I just put both ramps on the driver's side, one in the front and one in the back so that the whole driver's side of the truck was raised up. This gave me plenty of clearance to work.

ok i know its been a long time and no i never got around to doing the pump, i ran accross a thread that told how to cut a hole in the floor and do it that way, it had pics but i cant find it anymore, i cant drop the tank where i live, my manager looked at me and she said "YOUR NOT DROPING THE TANK HERE" so i want to do it the other way

Is this the thread your looking for?

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=182160

I found it by going to the useful thread forum, and searched that forum only for the word tank. It was the only thread that showed up. If I had searched for tank throughout the entire forum I'm sure I would have never found it

~Mark

thankyou thankyou thankyou x10000
that was just the thread i was looking for