Dropping tank, removing sender...How easy/hard?

[CaliWagon83]

How easy/hard is it to drop the tanks and take out the senders? Would you recommend two people? I want to dig in and start doing stuff, but all my friends and in-laws are busy with holiday stuff. Just debating whether it's something I want to do myself right now, or wait until I have a little more help. Any advice/experience appreciated.

 

[Injectedcutty]

It can be done with one person, a couple jackstands, and a jack. Use the stands to support the tank while you remove the straps, then lower with the jack. Getting the sender out just takes patience on getting the ring loose.
Obviously, two people will always make it easier, just take your time and safety first.

 

[TURNA]

Two bolts and a jack and your good to drop tank.

Hammer and a punch to remove locking ring brass preferred for no spark.

Some Vasoline on the rubber ring when you reinstall

 

[Tomeal]

Less gas in the tank = easier for 1 man!

 

[Injectedcutty]

Two bolts and a jack and your good to drop tank.

Hammer and a punch to remove locking ring brass preferred for no spark.

Some Vasoline on the rubber ring when you reinstall

Damn, you tree'd me!

 

[TURNA]

U must have red lighted

 

[1KWIKSIX]

Agreed....drain most of the gas from the tank first.

TRY THIS: A 4 or 5' length of 3/8" clear hose works fine for this purpose. It will slip on to the end of the fuel rail (always use a clamp!)

Run the fuel pump to empty the tank, by using an insulated wire to jumper between the GRAY test connector (in the wiring harness up by the alternator) and the HOT terminal on the back of the alternator. By using the clear hose, you can look for bubbles in the output from the fuel rail to tell when the tank is getting down to the last drop. Don't run the tank 100% dry, since the pump may cavitate enough to damage it.

A small 2' x 3' piece of plywood and an adjustable floor jack and your good to go! this is how I dropped my tank years ago (all by myself). Of course it's alway beneficial to have a 2nd set of hands around if possible.

 

[CaliWagon83]

I may get a hand-pump and can from HF to purge the tank. Just out of curiosity, I kind of jiggled the car a little to see if I could get an audible cue as to how much liquid was still in the tank. It didn't sound like much. I think it had about a half-tank when it was last driven & put away about 7 years ago, but my guess is a lot of that has evaporated. Thanks for the tips.

 

[TURNA]

just put the hose in the tank and run you compressor next to it with a blow gun

 

[Local Hero]

Ditto on what everyone else has said. But a few more things....

I've dropped and reinstalled my wagon tank three times over the course of a few months, all by myself and with it at various levels of "fullness." Once the tank was almost completely full. I found the trickiest part was getting the neck down and out of the fender well. Remove the fuel cap so it doesn't hang up on the access door opening. There is a removable splash apron with something like three screws holding it in. Remove the left rear tire to access it and remove that too.

Don't worry about trying to remove the rubber hoses that connect the tank to the fuel lines in the car. Just cut those and replace with fresh with the new tank. Once the tank is out of the way you can use a razor knife or other to slice the rubber hoses so they come off the hard lines easier.

When reinstalling, add the new rubber hose to the sender before putting the tank up. Leave the hoses long and cut off the excess once the tank is bolted all the way up and you can determine the length required to reach the hardlines. If you have a three outlet sender, you'll need 1/4", 5/16" and 3/8" rubber hose RATED FOR FUEL..... NOT vacuum hose. If you only have a two port sender, then skip the 1/4".