fuel tank...

Thanks to tons of great info here and on the SS forum for fuel tank removal the job wan't too bad... Did it by myself in an hour or so. I wish the pump wasn't dead so I could have used the jumper wire to drain the tank. The old gas smells terrible! I would guess there
I already have a new sending unit and fuel pump to go back in but possibly ran into a bigger issue with the tank itself.
There is a small split in the plastic on the top of the tank, right in the curve where the tank hits the car frame. It seems to be an odd place for the plastic to crack... I see that a new tank isn't available, so it's either try and seal the tank or find a decent used one. The crack is maybe two inches long.

here are a couple pics:

Fuel slosh showed the crack:
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Here a some more pics:

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crack is on the bottom left of this pic where the indent is for the car body.
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Where are you located?

I've had two that were cracked on the top like that. Until I was able to get a replacement, I just filled to 3/4. I dunno if plasti-weld type stuff will work or not. If you are on the eastern seaboard somewhere I think 94Woody may be able to help you out

I'm in Raleigh, NC... I will update my profile.

To use the plastic weld you need a stick of the same type plastic as the tank. It may work fine, if you continue the "weld" past the ends of the crack. Plastic welding requires a lot of heat, and an empty tank, or one filled with water to near the top is advised.

94Woody wrote:

Where are you located?

I posted above and updated my profile...

I just looked to see where your located, we were just in Ocala a couple weeks ago for a car show!

rcktpwrd wrote:

94Woody wrote:

Where are you located?

I posted above and updated my profile...

I just looked to see where your located, we were just in Ocala a couple weeks ago for a car show!

Cool, myself and Sprocket were at that show as well.

Florida Wagonfest is next weekend at Daytona.

Cool!

We didn't have anything in the show this year, but my wife was judging. I helped a friend by driving in his 1929 Model A Ford coupe while he drove his '29 Model A Rodester, that was fun!

I pulled the old sending unit/pump assembly today. I also drained as much of the nasty old fuel as I could, quite horrific stuff!
Is there a decent way to clean the inside of the tank of the remaining fuel and gunk that's in there? I would guess that there is still a half gallon or so of gas in there...

I also picked up the cheap [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] from Harbor Freight.

I was going to post up some pics but Imgur is fighting me right now... I'll try again later.

You can put your own pictures on here from your computer.

here are some pics of the nastiness...

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new and old:
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you might want to post in the Wagonfest FL threads to see if someone would give 94 Woody's gas tank a ride up to NC from Daytona and just meet them at an exit off of I95. Pretty sure at least one of them would be willing....just trying to help out.

I like that idea!

So I used some [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] in the tank to help clean out the remaining gunk. It seemed to cut through the stuff decently. I also reached in a wiped what I could with a rag. Then I rigged up a [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] and some extra tubing to extract the remaining stuff that was in there. I left it sitting for a couple days to air out some more.
Today I used the plastic welder I got from Harbor Freight. First I cleaned the area with carb cleaner spray. Then I sanded the area a bit to clean it more and scuff up the area. Then I went to work with the welder, seemed to OK! I ran the tip of it through the crack to try and seal it up, then I added some plastic to the area and spent some time melting that into the tank and smoothing the area. It seems to have patched the area and hopefully it holds up  long term.

Here are some pics, sorry didn't get any action shots as I was working alone.

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I have a question about the new sending unit I got. I has release tabs on it like the fuel filter, should I leave them on there? The old unit didn't have them...

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You can remove them if they are not used.

Spent some time today working on the car. Picked up a new piece of fuel line to replace the disintegrated vent hose. I started putting the tank back in and found that the new Dorman fuel filler neck is not bent and shaped the right way to fit! So out that came and I put the original back in. Not thrilled with that as there is some surface rust inside the filler neck. I ran out of time and couldn't finish up everything. The straps are fighting me a bit...

rcktpwrd wrote:

Spent some time today working on the car. Picked up a new piece of fuel line to replace the disintegrated vent hose. I started putting the tank back in and found that the new Dorman fuel filler neck is not bent and shaped the right way to fit! So out that came and I put the original back in. Not thrilled with that as there is some surface rust inside the filler neck. I ran out of time and couldn't finish up everything. The straps are fighting me a bit...

That cross strap can be a pain in the butt. I raise the tank into place and put some jack stands under it so it hangs down a little. Put the bolts through the front and lift them into place and turn in the the rear bolts a turn or two. That allows the cross strap to easily slide over the stud in the front.

Thanks for the tips 94Woody.

Earlier today I managed to get the cross strap in place and tightened all the strap bolts. I routed and connected the wiring. I also got the filler neck and vent tube hoses clamped in place. I connected the tank vent line and reconnected the strap on the body to hold the three lines in place.
Hopefully I won't have to touch this again for a long time.

Hopefully not. I dropped mine 3 times before I got it right.

looks like I have to drop the tank again! Filled it up the other day after getting work done at the shop. There is a decent fuel leak from somewhere up top! Can't see anything yet except fuel running down the front of the tank, maybe from the sending unit?!

pics from last night

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It could be your vent hose. It is 18mm hose. There are other possibilities, but check the hose.

Looks like my repair was a failure!

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She found a guy parting a '96 Roadmaster wagon, so today I went over there and pulled the tank from it. Looks to be in good condition, have to clean it up, drain the old gas from it and swap over the pump/sending unit.

I hope the new one works out for you. Going to be dropping the tank on mine in the not too distant future.

Nice. That's basically the only way to get a tank for one of these cars. Hope it works for you.

Thanks guys.
I cleaned the outside of the tank yesterday and it looks to be in great condition!

The car it came out of has 250,000+ miles on it. The car is still in pretty decent condition, but has a bad engine and the passenger side back window is broken so the interior is getting a bit trashed. It is tan on tan.

Got the 'new' tank installed and the car running, all seems well now!