I read alot forums till I found the fix.I didn.t drop my tanks though to me this is easier.Take the six bed bolts out and tank fill tubes lose from the bed and unplug the tail light plugs in front of the rear bumper.Place 2 long screw drivers in the front and rear bolt holes on the passenger side of the truck.Lift the drivers side of the bed and place a 6 inch block between the fram rail and bed,the bed is not that heavy and easy to lift.Place a cinder block or other suitable block on top of the spring behind the wheel.Now take your factory truck jack out from under the hood and set it on the block you set on the spring and raise the bed up high enough to stand a cinder block on end between the frame rail and bed.(Note the 2 long screwdrivers keep the bed from sliding off the right side frame rail).This will give you enough clearance to get the sending units out and put a short lenth of hose 3/8 on the end of the pickup tubes.Be sure to cut a small angle on the end of the hose so it doesn't get sucked to the bottom of the tank.This is better than wrestling those tanks in and out of the truck especially the back one I heard people complain about I did it this way and didn't even take the spare tire down.This works best when you don't have any help and it only took 3 hours.Also soak all the bolts down with PB Blast the day before and they'll come right off.And you'll need a swivel socket to get to the nuts on the bed bolts 18 mm.unless yours are torx head on top.

 

Nice work, thanks for sharing with us

 

good idea, but each man must consider his own rust situation: some have severe rust on the bed bolts, making them almost impossible to remove by any method other than cutting. others have trouble getting the tank straps off. the only one of these beds i had to pull off had enough rust that the bed mounting bolts were removed with an angle grinder, as a wrench would no longer fit

 

My favorite route involves a cutoff wheel and some sheet metal screws, cheap, fast, and easy. This "mod" is especially useful on "old body" chevys, seems they like to eat fuel pumps.

 

Great Idea/Method, Ill consider doing this when i have to drop my front tank.

 

I hear you can remove the front tank sender without removing the tank. Not that i've tried it.

 

@Onus
That's probably true as when I was lowering my front tank I could access the sending unit and lines without removing it but I had to take mine down anyway to clean it out.

Access to the lines on the selector valve is almost impossible unless you lower/remove the front tank...that's a drag.

I just took down my rear tank, cleaned it, patched a hole I made in it trying to get it out, put on a length of hose to replace the broken pick-up tube...and then had to reinstall from below...what a bitch it is...especially the filler tube!

I have a service body so doubt I could lift the bed off....

IF you have to do it from below, not able to remove bed, AND you have to drop both tanks, make sure you reinstall the back tank first...much easier to access front of back tank and selector valve with front tank removed!

The front tank is easy compared to removing/reinstalling the rear tank...

On mine the nuts for the straps were 15mm and the bolts 13mm...and I sprayed them liberally with Kroil for like two days and even then I had to pair up two wrenches to get enough leverage to turn them...
What is that called when you connect two wrenches to gain leverage??

Oh here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjoteWdUdC4

Two Wrench Leverage Trick

 

My tower came with two side tanks.
One was new and the other was plastic. A real bonus.
Only problem I have, is the support for the plastic tank is rotted out.
I'm in the process of making a new support for it now.
Hopefully, these gas tank horrors will be a thing of the past for me now.

 

Ive broke a couple wrenchs that way before, bent quite a few too. Still do it all the time though lol.

 

I dig it- I usually place my left or off hand on the joint where the two wrenches come together to stop them from twisting and coming apart...the other day I was breaking loose the rear tank nut and "twang" the wrenches twisted, catching the tip of my finger in-between and popping it open like a grape!
ouch!

best to wear HD gloves when doing this stuff anyway!

 

yup, pinched my fingers enough times too. I usually pay pretty close attention to where I put them now lol

 

i have never dropped a fuel tank in a pickup. i learned 45 years ago after having to drop a tank in a 61 pontiac that had gas in it not to drop a tank if there is any other way around it. every truck tank i have ever done was accessed by removing the bed.

 

i believe that trick is commonly known as a "cheater bar" even as a pipe over your ratchet handle is. but your name for it immediately told me what you were doing, so good enough.
good wrenches don't usually bend, cheap ones will.
first time i had a broke anything doing this was back in high school. the goal was to remove a plug with a 1/4" hex, and since i didn't have the allen wrench socket set at that time, i got the bright idea to use a long screwdriver bit with one end in the plug and the box end of the wrench over it. well that little 1/4" wrench was too short, so i put a 3/4 over it in that way, and went until i broke the box end off the small wrench. it was craftsman, so the replacement was free

 

I took the bed off my truck Monday so that I could do a few repairs underneath my truck. While it was apart I dropped the tanks so that I could clean the sediment out. The strainers on the fuel pick ups in my two tanks had disintegrated. To fix the problem with it running out of fuel at 1/4 tank I went to the Ford Dealership and bought two new strainers. They promptly reminded me why I never buy parts at the dealership by charging me $35 a piece for the strainers. Though the price gouging hurt I prefer to have a strainer to protect my fuel lines from trash. I liked the 3/8 tubing method mentioned earlier, but I was fearful of sucking up tank sediment due to not having a strainer.

 

i wonder how easy it would be to connect a "sock" style strainer like we find on most in-tank fuel pumps on gas vehicles