This forum has been extremely helpful to me and to everyone that has helped directly or indirectly I truly do appreciate it!! I have a 93 F250 ext cab long bed 4X4 with a 7.3 IDI non turboed diesel. When I bought it 5 years ago we discovered that the rear fuel tank had a leak. Since the side one was good and money wasn't the rear tank got taken all the way off the stove lol! I recently got the truck running again after being down a little over a year and spending 3 to 4 thousand dollars on parts and doing repairs I never thought I could! While buying all these parts I went again and bought a new rear fuel tank. I discovered tonight that the side tank now has a leak. It doesn't seem to be a fast leak but the whole bottom of the tank has a diesel coated gleem to it. My question is can anyone advise me as to proper procedures to changing the tank or guide me to where I can find them? I bought a tank and straps is there anything else that I am going to need or any other parts I should replace while doing this job? My other issue is that the fuel gauge stopped working one day a couple years ago. It never moves off the empty mark at all at least for the side tank. I've not put fuel in the rear tank after we ran the first tank down because of the leak so I've also never switched to the rear tank to see if it made a difference. Does anyone have any advise on how to trouble shoot and repair the fuel gauge? Thank You in advance for any help you can give me!!

 

Saddle tank is as easy as pulling the filler neck and the straps. Make sure it's supported on both ends, or any residual fuel will go to the unsupported end and make it "fun" to drop down.

Take the tank out and see what the sending unit looks like. If it stays on empty, my bet would go towards the brass float got a hole in it and doesn't actually float anymore.

 

Thank You for that helpful reply! Please excuse my ignorance but when you say saddle tank are you talking about the rear tank that's between the frame rails or the side tank that runs along the rail on the driver's side? Do you know if I will need anything other than the new tank and straps to replace the rear tank?

 

Saddle tank = side tank. Like a saddle bag.

Rear tank is a little more tricky than the side tank, but I've done both. I put a Super Duty tank on my saddle tank and a Spectra F26e for my rear. I have around an 80 gallon capacity now. Rear tank (for me, 2wd truck, 4wd trucks are different with a skid plate) I found much easier to just pull the bed off. 6 bolts and the wiring harness and the filler necks and it comes right off. My brother owns the family farm and has a tractor with a loader and it took us 30 minutes to take the bed off and put it back on again.

If you are getting a new rear tank, I HIGHLY recommend the Spectra F26e. You can find it on Amazon or Rockauto, and it should come with an installation kit. It re-uses your stock straps, but utilizes spacers and longer bolts. There's a good write-up on Rosewood diesel's site somewhere that details very clearly what needs done.

 

what year superduty saddle tank? direct swap?

 

2003, I think. It's not direct, you have to do some modifying for it. And I still haven't figured out why my truck won't run under a load with it, but I think it's because my switching valve is bad. It runs just fine at idle. I have a write up for it over on PSN, but a lot of people who see it think it sits way too low to the ground. In all honesty, it doesn't sit any lower than the rear differential.