The gas tank that was in my truck when I got it in 1974 had been smashed in. COE tanks are unique to COE trucks and not easy to find. Capacity should be 22 gallons, but mine was more like 17 or 18 gallons. Eventually I found one on eBay. A local radiator shop hot tanked, etched, and coated it.

This shows the process. The old tank is on the left. I had taken the old tank out years ago and cleaned and coated the inside with a POR-15 kit. And then painted it. The POR-15 kit didn't have a lot of coating and I don't think I managed to completely coat all of the baffles in the tank.



Closeup of the shutoff valve with the original rubber donut. You can't see the metal plate between the donut and the tank. The hole in the floor is big enough that the tank can be removed and replaced with the shutoff valve attached to the tank.



View in the cab with old tank out.




The area behind the seats where the tank lives collects rodent nests and general debris over the years. It is amazing that it isn't more rotted out. I cleaned it out, removed loose scale, treated with Ospho, and then painted it. Sprayed RustOleum primer from a rattle can but in the enclosed area that wasn't much fun. So I got a can of RustOleum paint and used a brush for the final coat. The tank rests on the two cradles on the floor. I glued rubber pads onto the cradles as you can see from the white foam left by the Gorilla glue. I removed the excess after taking the photo. The large hole at the far end is where the outlet and shutoff value go through the floor. The wire coming up is for the gas tank sender.



Here's the same area taken from the driver's side.



And finally two views of the new tank in place. The top brackets also have rubber pads glued to them so that the tank should only be touching the 8 rubber pads.






Here's a close up of the engine compartment.



And a couple of overall views of the truck.

 

Very nice & nice truck!
I like your battery disconnect- I may steal that idea.
Also noting the fuel sender gets grounded to the cab- must be why my gauge doesn't work?

 

Just love that COE, you can park it at my place anytime.

 

The battery disconnect switch isn't really visible at that location because it is under the passenger seat. But it is easy to reach it from the driver's seat. I installed it years ago when the truck had its original wiring that had a slow discharge path someplace. After I rewired the truck the disconnect is still nice to have as a safety and security measure.

There definitely needs to be a ground path for the tank and sender in order for the gauge to work. With the rubber pads, the tank isn't electrically connected to the truck's frame. I think the original had something like leather pads. So a ground wire was still necessary then too.

 

Thanks.

In the 42 years I've had the truck the farthest from home I've ventured with it is about 50 miles. My dream is to someday take it on a long road trip.

Because of the non-synchro transmissions it is a lot more fun to drive on the open road than in traffic. Cruising speed when empty is around 50 to 60. Gets a whopping 7 to 8 mpg. Probably a little over 8 mpg when empty on the open road.

Tom

 

Yup, mine too. wish I could do that speed in mine. The 2 speed I bought recently is not the high speed so I am still looking.

 

You need to get one of these:



Without the overdrive my truck wouldn't even hit 50. And the low is really low.

The speedometer is connected after the Watson, so it is still mostly accurate. It reads about 10% low. When it says 50 mph I'm actually going 55, etc. I didn't figure out that 10% error until a few years ago. So all those years of driving at 55, I was really going over 60. No speeding tickets though.