Fuel tank drop question

[qtrmill]

Ok, so got my over-exaggerating tach fixed in another thread... now onto the perma-E on the gas gauge.

I'm positive it's the float because a few years ago I gassed up to Full because we had a hurricane approaching... Filling up never happened before since gas is fetching over $4.25/gallon here. Next morning the gauge went straight to E, "do not pass go"..."do not collect $200."

I slid under today and with the tank supported, removed the supply hose and vent, removed three bolts from the front of the skid plate.. easy. Is the skid place riveted to the tank? It wasn't really apparent how the plate is attached at the back?!?!

Then I moved onto the tank straps - I can see one bolt just above the driveshaft about half way down the tank; another just forward of the rear wheel, above the brake cable... These are SUPER tight (probably siezed) and will need some further motivation to be removed - and I ran out of time today.

Question is, is that all that holds the tank on or what? I'm hoping there aren't some stupid inaccessible bolts somewhere...cutting a gaping hole in the floor is not something I wanted to resort to - ugh.

If anyone knows of a How-To or a pic of where the appropriate bolts are, etc; that would be AWESOME!

 

[puddlebug]

well your almost there just got finished with this myself. pm me i'll give the run down on what i found worked had to do it twice in less then 30 days once for brake like failure then for the fuel pump

 

[surf]

Can you post what you found. I have this job to do in the near future.

 

[backfrmcolorado]

hell of a job to do.the skid plate is only held up by 5 bolts. 2 in the front, one in front side( front strap bolts to it), one right on frame in wheel well, and the one thats going to be a ***** to do it under the truck. look in the back of the skid plate by the driveshaft and rearend. its up there and its a ***** to get to if the bolts are rusted. as soon as you get that skid plate off yur golden, only if you dont break the strap when you have to bend it out of the way of the tank to drop it. and if you can get the last strap bolt off.

make sure tho if yur X isnt lifted to jack the rear end way up. i had to jack mine up so the rear bumper was about waist high. us jack stands and block the tires. dont need to hear of a death!! try to drive the thing to almost empty. i costed into my driveway on fumes and was abel to pul my tank by hand cuz it was so light.

hope this could help and good luck

 

[backfrmcolorado]

sorry re post: overlooked some of yur past post above. you know that strap bolt you found about half way down by the driveshaft. no more than a foot further back is the last bolt that hold up the skid late. you can see the bracket from skid plate.
and i know with my skid removal... skid plate has foam pads to protect tank from the metal. might have some of the adhesive melted to the tank from skid. really sticky, almost like tar.

 

[Reejerey]

there's going to be some hoses fuel lines and wires on the top of the tank to the pump, so make sure you let it down slow. also, don't forget to disconnect the filler neck