fuel tank

[hump]

Any advice on dropping and cleaning my fuel tank. I have a load of crap (water & dirt), and I fear the worst for my IP. Thanks as always.

[sidedump]

Is it metal or plastic?

[hump]

it is metal with a plastic protector on the bottom half. I was wondering if the bolt that holds the back of the tank should be unscrewed completely or if it can slip out of the frame it is bolted to. I'm doing this on my back in the driveway (raining all weekend), so any help is appreciated. I'm disconnecting the hose clamps that attach to the outside assembly filler cap. I'm wondering what surprises are in store on top of the tank. I was thinking of connecting a temp fuel supply and catching the returned fuel separately, or should I drain the lines to clear them.

[sidedump]

Taking the straps out makes things easier. Don't forget the ground strap. To drain the tank I ran a longer hose from the filters water drain petcock on down to a gas can. Mine was mounted to the water neck. Next I removed the lift pump relay and put a jumper wire in there.
Hopefully there isn't much fuel in your tank because I would not put it back in.
Cleaning the tank was easy. A freind of mine had a steam cleaner and steamed it out. If you cannot get access to a steam cleaner your local coin-op power wash and some good degreaser will work. When finished pour some denatured alcohol in to rid any water. Hope I helped.

[tom.mcinerney]

Probably best thing for FIP would be run fresh filtered fuel thru it as soon as convenient.

Tank on my '95 supported by two steel straps, yours sounds diff. Not hard to lower empty...a trans jack with platform nice if some weight.
Might be able to use lift pump to drain. The fittings to mine were an oddball flare with oring, but i think the pump would also accept standard 3/8 flare.

People use low [LOW] pressure air to blow out crud in lines (open filler neck).

[hump]

Thanks guys, got the tank down, going to swab it out with rags and alcohol and maybe run a hair dryer through it on cold setting for a few hours to be sure. Thanks for the advice. Keeping my fingers crossed that the IP survived the H2O

[ucdavis]

I've always thought that if I had to do this I'd install allthread of sufficient length to just be out of the way, in place of the bolts holding tank, so I could ratchet down the tank next time.

[tom.mcinerney]

ucdavis:

My thought was to replace the oem bolts with stainless on my new tank, which i did.

Then i ruminated about the 'meaning' of the oem bolts being, iirc grade Metric 10.9 . So i replaced the new 304 ss with the original !