I have always known and want to know what the bottom of the tank looks like on the dashboard and today I found out. I know I'm a lucky man 'cause even when my luck runs low it could have been lower. When I started 'er up for work the start up was a little clunky but it went away pretty near immediately so I attributed it to the cool night. 24 miles to the daily grind and chunk, chunk, chunk she went about a minute after that little fuel pump showed up on the dash right next to the yard. I feathered 'er into the parking lot like the experience pro that I am at these situations.

My route today included a shiny new car lift to a service station who gracefully endowed me with an empty anti-freeze bottle, even had it pre-rinsed for me.

Along the way I got me a couple of pretzel dogs and a soda at the Philly Pretzel Factory and saved the bottle in case a funnel wasn't in the cards for me this time around. I did good, no funnel, cut bottom out of Sprite bottle and voila I had a right nice funnel. Even if the diesel eats it I got my use out of it. Just this summer they opened up a shiny new WaWa right up the street from the yard I work out of and they sell diesel at almost as cheap as it gets around here so I got me a gallon on the way back in. She sounded like a noisy old nag at startup and I tip toed my way over to that aforementioned WaWa for a fill up clunking all the way. That's OK, I deserved it. Put another 26 gallons in letting the foam die down the get the most I could in there. A little math and I'm on a hair over 15 MPG this trip. The shake, rattle and roll carried on a bit, especially as I idled out to the red light (all traffic lights are red in my neck of the woods) and up onto the highway. Engine smoothed out at highway speed and purred as I shut 'er off in the driveway.

 

Sounds like a good day! Also sounds like time for the Hutch/Harpoon to fix the foaming.

 

i feel your pain. Ive run it down before when the light was on and the lie o meter was telling me 10miles to empty. Thats as low as ive gotten the meter. But sometimes the light comes on at 60miles to E, sometimes not til 25-30. I usually dont get it that low, but since i tightened my injectors last month my gauge has been acting like my mileage has improved. Used to move off of full at about 100-110 miles, now it doesnt move until 150 miles, usually i can still safely get another 100 miles when it reads 1/4, well i kept on going just so that i could get 500 miles on a full tank again, its been a while since ive done that, and at 504 i pulled in for some fuel. It was low, but ive had it lower, it was in the red, but not bottomed out. Well, i managed to put 29.8 gallons in a 29 gallon tank. I think i was damned lucky as obviously i was running on fumes. And the meter was still showing i could go another 35 miles to E, but the light did not come on. It seems to be a finicky lil devil. I dont know that i can trust it anymore.

 

I have been eying the Hutch/Harpoon mod and when (if) I get caught up on the other neglected things on this truck it will get done. How much time can one anticipate spending on it?

Thanks,
Mark

 

Mark, you already know the first step pretty well-run the tank low on fuel! It is an all day job- read the instructions several times and have someone available to help man handle the tank if that is possible. Although you have a smaller tank, so that does help. I did fill up the day before deciding to do the mod, wow, that 39 gallons takes a lot of 5 gallon cans and homer buckets to store! I used the fuel bowl drain and a piece of fuel hose to drain the tank. Two wires from the battery attached to the fuel pump through a light switch for control.
Keep a close eye on the flexible hoses when reinstalling the tank.
The fight to install the rubber hose over steel tube with a ridge in it was the hardest part.
I installed a valve on each side of the pre-pump filter for easy filter change outs. I also added another valve to one of the spare threaded ports on the fuel pump side of the filter so that I can check how much vacuum there is. It is an easy way to check if the filter needs changing. GM diesels have a port for that purpose (and bleeding air) factory installed at the CP3 pump.

It was amazing to me that there was no sediment in the bottom of the tank.

Oh, the hardest part was getting the 7" nut restarted and tightened down on the top of the tank-so I liberally coated the threads with vinyl cleaner-made a good lube. Otherwise the friction makes it hard to know when the nut is tightened all the way.
I modified a floor jack to look like a transmission jack with some 1X4's to make it easier to handle the tank, because a 39 gallon tank is large physically, even when empty.
Good luck! Larry

 

WAWAs!!!
My son in law n daughter are always talking about go there.

 

I laid my nut in the sun for a bit, heard you can put your nut in the oven as well.

 

Also dont have to drop the tank, you could remove the bed as well as an alternate method. Not saying its any easier or quicker, just an alternative. Thats what i did, didnt think i would ever get the bed bolts loose. Once loose though, it was a piece of cake after that.

 

I do have a front end loader, a chain hoist and one hell of a big pine tree with a nice lower branch. So how hard is yanking the bed?

 

Not that bad. My biggest problem was getting the bed bolts loose. I cant tell ya how many torx bits i broke trying to get em out. I suggest soaking the hell out of em with pb blaster or something from underneath maybe would help. Once the bolts are out, take covers off brake lights and disconnect them from harness. I had a trailer light connector to disconnect in the bed for gooseneck, and then disconnect fuel filler neck. Remove tailgate. I took two ratchet hold down straps and crisscrossed in the bed from the low anchor points in each corner, not tight, but taught. Then dropped a hook from a chainfall hanging from a tree limb and off she came. With the tailgate off it balances out quite nicely lifting from the center of the "crossed" straps. Then I had easy access to the tank for the mods. I also did this because i installed a B&W gooseneck hitch at same time, so i had multiple things going on to make it more beneficial, but did all work by myself and didnt have to wrestle anything except them stubborn bolts.

 

That beats climbing underneath in my book...IF those bolts come out. I'll play with them on the meantime...oh yea, I have a spray in bed liner. I think that comes into the mix too.

 

Not sure how they attached the later models but my 2000 had clip nuts on the frame for the bed bolts to screw into. I soaked them good with several penetrating oils. All but the front two came out fine but the clips on the front two broke. Left the nuts just spinning. Had to weld the nuts to the frame to get the bolts out. Problem is the left front one is above the tank so I ended up dropping it any way to get to it to weld.

If you just loosen the back two bolts and take out the rest you can jack the front of the bed and slide boards across the frame to hold it up. Then you don't have to take it all the way off and still work safely.

 

Yeah, you would have to cut that bed liner to get to the bolts. If your liner looks really clean you may not want to but if it's beat a little you could probably get a can of roll on liner and retouch the bolt heads after.

Just caught your sig walleye hunter. guessing that e99 will have clip nuts.

 

yea, mine had the clip nuts. I would advise to crawl under and locate them and soak the hell out of em. I had one i had to cut off cuz the clip nut was broke.

 

Damon makes a good point about not tightening those ratchet straps up too tight. The forces multiply a lot if the straps are too tight. Looser is better or use home-made "spreader bars" to allow the straps to be picked vertically.
During load lifting training safety was stressed- do not stand or move in under the load, use proper sized straps, use un-damaged straps, have an extra person available who understands what you are trying to do and who can watch the load as you lift and who has a cell phone for a call for help. And last but not least, no children running around!