For my '68 f250 with a FE 360, the stock 10 gallon gas
tank in the cab seems limiting.

Can anyone tell me how difficult it might be to pull
an auxiliary gas tank valve and auxiliary gas tank?
And what dangers to avoid? Out there, so far as I know,
I can only have hand tools. I do have what seems
to be a relatively low powered sears cordless drill.

Thanks,

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

The valve and switch would be easy. The rest kinda depends on condition and where you live. A desert truck might not be too difficult. A Michigan one is going to take a while. There's quite a bit of bracketry and a shield before you even get to the tank. Considering it's under the truck and most wasn't painted, it may take some time. Check the condition of the tank first. Mine looked pretty good but I still had a couple pinholes to patch.

But it's definately worth getting it!

Larry
www.larryscars.com

 

I could hack-saw the fuel lines in front and after the
valve itself at some nearby strategic locations, but
I am concerned if that would cause damage.

I am also concerned if it would cause a gas tank
explosion. I think that would not be very cool,
and I am worried that I might get hurt

I did get a 5 gal. plastic tank

Any pointers welcome.

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

I'm no 4x4 expert (or expert at anything) but won't the factory aux. tank run right into the transfer case?

Barry

 

Very wise to be cautious concerns. A gas tank can be a pretty laborous thing to remove even in the shop sometimes. The straps always have about 3 inches of rusty, beat up threads for the nut to come over, and the strap just wants to twist. Also they are pretty tough and don't easily wield to things like tin snips. You should be safe with a hack saw. Take extra blades. Block it up good before you get under it. I like to destroy a very minimum of connecting pieces at a yard. Someone else may need the part you hacked. I have been to u remove yards looking for a part only to find it torched off to ease someone elses removal. Just the other day I saw a 75 that they had torched the grille and core support to pull an engine. They just busted the plastic grille inserts out. I had seen the truck a month earlier and the front was almost perfect. Don't be one of those guys. I am however not above clipping the wire behind the connector when I take a switch or cutting hoses.

 

Assuming the aux. tank does fit, it will be quite a PITA to get out. Especially at the junkyard, lying on your back in the dirt, ant beds, weeds, etc. If it is at all possible, remove the bed first. It is only held on by six bolts and is not too heavy. This will give you the much needed room to work upright and get to a couple strategically located nuts and bolts.

 

Your truck has a 10 gallon gas tank?

 

buzzard- thanks for the tip. I will try that approach
when I get enough courage to go for it.

golferSA- All I know for sure is that I have a tank behind
the seat in the cab. I thought I noticed it taking about
10 gallons when nearly dry. I was not paying much
attention at the time and I've only started driving the thing
around to any significant degree recently. What did I miss?
I know that the sending unit is malfunctioning and only
shows a half tank just after I top off... I imagine that
means I might have to pull the sending unit and clean
or replace it somehow (? - another topic).

In any case, it seems small.

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

bb- I don't know what you mean...

willowbilly- roger on all your points.

All- the valve I have seen so far has a relatively long
handle (~2"-- significantly longer than the one in
my '68 bronco) and it points at an odd angle, such
that for one of the positions, the handle nearly hits
the inside of the driver side door... It makes me wonder
if what I saw was stock or a retrofit from some 3rd party
vendor... I think I would rather have genuine Ford
aux. tank hardware if possible, unless some 3rd party
vendor had an overwhelmingly superior alternative solution (?)...

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

I think the in-cab tanks are about 18 gallons. If you actually go to a PicknPull, or U-Pull in California, I know for a fact that those knuckle-heads punch holes in the tanks to drain them. They usually punch holes in diff covers as well. Some of the "full service" bone yards can help you remove the tank or might have one removed already. They charge a bit more.

 

Aha, I have actually been going to what I guess might
be called a regular, or perhaps a hybrid, junkyard,
and I have at least heard from them that they can help
pull stuff (since they have onsite mechanics). That reduces
the problem, if the price is right on the pulling charges,
to figuring out how to install the spare tank... having
no experience with this, I wonder what type of place
I could go to... I tend to view it as a specialty,
like radiator work... and I don't want to blow myself up... ;-)

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

Mine holds about $35,483.00 worth

18 gallons was standard for these trucks... maybe you've got a dead raccoon or sumthin' in there??

 

The fuelguages on these trucks are notoriously inaccurate. I suggest carrying a can of gas and running it empty. Then you have a better idea of what the guage is really reading.

 

Willowbilly-

That's a good suggestion, I will try to remember to do it,
although I suspect that my truck is no different in
this regard than anyone else's.

I have a couple of problem areas. One is that there
is a big gas stink coming (I believe) from the engine
compartment and through the firewall whenever
I fire up the engine and/or drive off. I'm in Calif.
and the engine has been gone over for a tuneup
and whatnot, so I would have guessed that any hoses
that seemed eaten up by MTBE additives and so on
would have been replaced by now, but ... (?) It seems
as if I only get about 70 miles before the gauge
registers empty, arghhhhh can't frickin' believe it...

Another is that the fuel sending unit is obviously malfunctioning
and only registers half full when the cab tank is topped off.
I need to search for a thread or something that tells me
how to fix this (do I need to prep by buying a gasket or
something in case the old one disintegrates when I take
the sending unit out? I also gotta find the stock values
for the min. and max. resistance, presuming I have that
correctly.) The truck was apparently sitting around for
a while relatively unused, so I am wondering what I
will find on the sending unit as a result (rust? jelled
fuel?).

In fact, I may just go take a chance and try to diagnose
or take care of the sending unit problem right now...
it is one of the dwindling things that would make me nervous
if I had to take a long trip with the truck, not that
I am doing that just yet...

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.

 

10 ohms empty, 73 ohms full, something like that,
and can't find the steve83 post or response.

-Steve
'68 f250 4x4
etc.