Club 80-90 Forums

I feel like I know the answer but I'll ask anyway as I don't want to disturb any fuel lines

I have been wrenching and writhing at rusted pipe clips all afternoon replacing a van length heater pipe, and other rusted clips as the coolant is out.

I have got to the last stage where I need to remove the old heater hose from under the fuel tank but it's stuck fast.

My fuel gauge is in the red so there's not much juice in it.

How heavy will it be?

Could I put a trolley jack under as support, remove the bolts then the support struts and lower it by a cm or two without disturbing any fuel lines?

Yes, should be ok.. but need to keep an eye on the breather lines.. filler pipe may restrict what you can drop it by


But while you are doing that you may want to consider checking the breather lines etc and changing them if cruddy....

I'm in agreement, if you go to the extent of removing the straps you might as well just drop it altogether. It is possible to leave the neck in place and drop the tank down on the N/S and slide out to the left (the neck will pull out the grommet)
The ballance breather (attaches centrally via a bracket) above the tank so you will need to pull off one side to allow movement.
Braided hose is a weired size (available from Brickwerks)
This will give you the oportunity to clean off all the dried crud and repaint the top of the tank.

Martin

Cheers I will give it a whirl with the jack

The tank, filler neck, breather pipes and grommets where changed for a brand new about 5 years ago due to "fuel on forecourt" syndrome. TBH I think I only used it for a year then gassed it

I really only need to drop the tank by a centimetre or two as the heater pipe is just being pinched against the recess in the tank by the 2 larger plastic coolant pipes. Once it's free I can yank it out and feed the new pipe through.

God knows how people have changed the plastic pipes without dropping the tank. Especially on your back like I have been

if the breathers were cheap pipe then they may well be shot. id do them anyway whilst the tank is out, its not a hard or expensive job and you may well cause them to damage even by moving them slightly if they are corroded. youll be able to tell when its all back together and you can smell fuel....then youll have to take the tank out again....btw dont forget to reconnect the fuel sender wires b4 you put it all together
(note to self...take this advice and use it next time)

daz

Have dropped my tank too on a transmission jack at work, took the filler neck off and straps but nothing else. Was enough room above tank to get my hand and arm up there

Had not thought of unscrewing the filler neck at the filling poing Fullsanian

Should prevent any damage to the filler neck.

Like I said I am only dropping the tank by 2cm's at the most. Just enough to release the pressure on the tight heater pipe.

Breather pipes were replaced with good quality hose by a very well known North West specialist and are still fine.

Thanks for all your help

Couldn't drop the tank in the end as the two bolts were far too rusty and a can of worms would have ensued. So I routed the heater pipe through the other recess on the tank and made sure it did not get in the way of any pipes and the gear selection rod.

Sounds very sensible that
mike

Still took my the best part of 11 hours overs two days just to change that pipe and replace rusted clips on the long main radiator feed and return pipes.

That's including minor disasters such the spade connector on the starter motor wire snapping (due to me jiggling the pipes around in that area) which meant I needed the one spade terminal I didn't have. So I decided to walk 1.5 miles to the nearest motor factors, which didn't have any 6mm yellow terminals , so I cadged one off a local mechanics on the way back

Then think what might have gone wrong if you had dropped it
Spade snapping was a blessing in disguise, must have been on its way out, see good comes of everything
mike