Apocolips

I’m tired of the gas smell in my garage and after filling the tank. Time to drop the tank. It’s the original tank on a 1970 base 350. It doesn’t have a vapor canister and the tank does not have the provision for it. Any advice on the removal and what to look for, and what to replace while the tank is out. Thanks, and Merry Christmas.

jnb5101

make sure the smell is coming from the tank. unless it's leaking, the only place the odor could be coming from is the cap vent. the smell might be from your carb.
if it is the tank, there aren't any real tricks. cut the tank-pump hose where is enters the pipe at the right rear, and drain into a container. remove the return hose and wires. then,using a bucket under the sending unit, remove the sending unit by loosening the nut. use a punch and a small hammer to rotate the nut. expect about a quart of fluid to drain out. i say fluid because it's going to be a mixture of water, gas and rust. then loosen the straps(bolts at rear) and remove straps and support. the tank will twist out, but be careful because the corners of the upper-lower joint are sharp.

SHAKERATTLEROLL

When you remove the tank and find you have lots of rust a good place to get a new one that is the same as factory with the factory markings is Quanta http://www.quantaproducts.com/ Great people to deal with.


But again I am also a bit confused as to why you are going to remove the tank. I would first make sure all of your lines are in good shape and look for any leaks you may have. You may not even have a leak but it could seep slowly from the sending gasket.

But as said it is an old tank and the possibility of rust in the tank is pretty high so it would be a good time to replace it with a fresh one. As for the smell well it is kinda the nature of the ole Beast as you do have a carburetor which has vents from the float bowl and also your fuel tank cap is the vented type. So you may smell gas because of these two items.

Apocolips

Thanks everyone. I think one of the reasons I'm going to remove the tank is to see if, and I know it's a long shot, the Build Sheet is still there. Thanks for the advice good stuff to know. Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

Vette Gator

Check the hard lines that run up the frame rail as long as you're underneath. My gas smell turned out to be rusted-through steel lines rather than the tank itself.

Jeff_Keryk

The biggest problems for me were:
1) The screws to the muffler clamps were cross-threaded (muffler shops and their air-tools!)
2) The sender-unit nut replacement nut was junk (too weak) so we reused the original
Otherwise just a bunch of nuts and bolts...

GUSTO14

Best advice I can give is to remove all of the gas from the tank before you start removing it from the car, and I do mean all of it.

I started to remove the tank from my '73 many moons ago and after draining as much gas as I could I started to remove the straps only to discovered that the straps were in fact holding the lower parts of the tank together. After getting doused with gas I quickly snugged up the bolts and used rags to remove the remaining gas from inside the tank. Once the tank is empty, you'll find it much more "comfortable" to finesse the tank out ...without getting doused.

Good luck... GUSTO

7t3shark

I was able to see my build sheet using a telescopic mirror. Of course if you want to be able to retrieve it, then you will need to drop the tank. Good luck.