you know how there always seems to be something on a vehicle that requires you to constantly go back to it - you fix one thing, something else happens and causes you to have to go back and perform some PITA job again? First my gas gauge was inoperative, and I tracked it to the sending unit. Fixed it (worked fine on the bench, reinstalled it, worked a week and died. Bought a new sending unit, dropped the tank and put it in, realized LMS sent me a sender supposedly for the 38 gallon tank - but they didn't send the parts that actually made it WORK in the tank. Rode around a while with a tank in which as long as it was full, all worked well - but at half a tank the gas level dropped below the pickup tube and I ran out of gas. Figured out that by extending the float arm I could get a reasonably accurate sending unit, so I dropped the tank AGAIN, modified the sending unit, reassembled and reinstalled everything - looked good.. Filled the tank, gauge working, all looks VERY good.


Had a $.40 per gallon discount at Kroger's so I didn't waste it - filled all my generator gas cans, too (been using them to transfer gas from the tank when I needed to drop it - getting on to hurricane season now ,so I filled them to be sure if power fails, the generator has tons of gas, right? So I have a full 38 gallon tank, 35 gallons of gas in 5 gallon containers... and when I drive to work I smell gas - to make a long story short the O-ring below the sender mounting plate is leaking. Badly. (Could be I kinked it or it broke... even worse if it is my fault!) So I have a full 38 gallon tank, nowhere to put the gas from it, and a truck leaking gas from the tank (occasionally falling onto the exhaust, so I'm not wild about driving it!) That damn ginormous tank must weigh how much full? Plus it dripped gas on the garage floor overnight so my car reeks of gas fumes, now, too..... by now I HATE that (barnyard expletive deleted) bulky awkward tank......


Guess I will borrow or buy more of those 5 gallon containers (which due to the EPA-mandated nozzles, don't work at ALL well on the truck), siphon off about 1/3 tank, and drive it till it's dry.... but I am getting REALLY TIRED of R&Ring that damn tank. OK, rant over... I just wanted to whine.

 

Hey Houston Dave, welcome to this episode of the old truck version of " The Twilight Zone", theres a commercial coming soon so you'll get a 3 minute break from this. LOL

 

Kind of like, "hey I need new door gaskets - cool, ordered. O, this aluminum kick bar at the bottom might as well be replaced since I'm there and have to remove them anyways.. ok ordered that too. Have to lift up this carpet a bit.. o wow... those floor boards are totally rusted out.. with freak'n holes. big holes.. wth.. I need new floor panels... ug. .FINE ordered. hmm.. I wonder who can weld these on.. "
All while it's a loud windy drive now because I have no door gaskets on. Will be until I find a welder and time.

 

gfburke, Got my floor boards fixed by chopping up the back cab wall of an 89 f350, got my cab corners done that way to. With these trucks you don't through nothing away and you develop creative thinking and there are a lot of parts that interchange from the next 2 generations. Buy That Welder.

 

right!? ey, just some metal bits!
idk, guess I should look at my cab mounts. I keep seeing that term.. along with 'rust'. bleh. lol. damn door gaskets.

 

I feel your pain. It seems I get that curse all too often.
I had a 1.80 choke tube flange gasket go bad. In order to replace it.
It's another 16 in gaskets. The light at the end of the tunnel I guess is I found
someone used the wrong gasket on the manifold spacer.
Now I get to find out if it's going to mess with how it runs when I put the correct
one back on.

 

Ah cut a access hole and worry no more...at least that is what "the bronco" PO did....

Or have a scrapper stop buy as say "I'll haul off all this JUNK for free"...I said "Since you are now standing on private property, how about you leave before I shoot you in the face". lol

Hang in there with the fuel tank issues, because eventually it will be some other problem you get to deal with.

Like electrical....or scrappers trying to free load the good stuff.

 

It has been my experience that the o-rings are one shot deals. They swell and never seal or fit again. That includes the ones I have bought from the dealer. You might go to the o-ring dealer and see if they have something that is actually compatible with ethanol based gas.

 

Scot - Agree 100% on normal O-rings - they are a one-shot deal. The rubber ring below the sender is a slightly different animal, it has a square cross section - I suspect I may have managed to kink that somehow. By now I have driven some of the gas out of the tank - I am thinking maybe next weekend if the weather isn't a pain I may take another shot at dropping the tank - again - plug all the attached lines and see where the tank is really leaking from. It may not be the o-ring at all - kinda hard to tell while the tank is still installed, even using a decent flashlight and a mirror.