When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
my rear tank fuel pump died on my 95 f-150 and i was wondering if it would be easier to cut the tops of the bolts holding the bed on or to drop the tank?
Everyone has their opinion, I find it very easy to drop the tank. If you have 3-4 brawny friends then you may find pulling the bed easier. When I replaced the rear tank on my old 1992 F350 I dropped the tank to the ground using two ratchet straps. Took about 45 minutes.
It's easy enough to drop the tank. I've done it by myself a couple times.
If there's gas in it, disconnect the line at the filter and jump the fuel pump to pump it out into a container. Once empty enough to move, drop it down onto a jack. I use a transmission jack, but it's light enough to lay under it and wrestle it out without tools once it's empty.
my rear tank fuel pump died on my 95 f-150 and i was wondering if it would be easier to cut the tops of the bolts holding the bed on or to drop the tank?
There's a video I just saw yesterday, w/ a guy pulling the bed back. He did all of this to change the pump in the tank The carriage bolts you talk about can be accessed from the bottom. The guy shows you where, gives size- its ac excellent video..
Cutting the heads of the bed bolts doesn't buy you anything if they are OEM because they also have a shoulder that clamps the lower surface of the bed frame to the chassis, so even with the heads completely ground away the bed still won't come off. Cutting off the bed bolts only works if they aren't OEM style or if you are trashing the bed and don't mind cutting away the bed around the bolts.
the nuts and bolts are rusted solid so i have been soaking them with pb blaster and i found my 5 ft breaker bar the other day. so i shall try round two tuesday on my day off.
the nuts and bolts are rusted solid so i have been soaking them with pb blaster and i found my 5 ft breaker bar the other day. so i shall try round two tuesday on my day off.
.....and that is why I drop the tank. It is much easier to replace a couple straps you had to cut than deal with what you now encountering.
I've done one tank, and with typical Minnesota rust it's definitely easier to drop the tank. But if you have a bunch of different things to do all at once (both tanks, maybe some rear axle work and/ot cleaning and painting the frame) it might be better to pull the bed.
The trickiest thing I found about dropping the tank was getting the gas lines disconnected. It was the first time I'd done that style. You need the right tool, and it needs to be for the correct size line. And the supply and return lines are different sizes. And the first cheap tool I bought didn't work... And of course I was doing all of this with the tank on a floor jack, trying not to let it get down too far so it was hanging from the lines. Overall not that big of a deal, but that was the part of the job that I started to wonder if it would've been better to pull the bed (but ultimately decided I had done it the best way).
Then don't waste your time, if you do manage to turn the bolts you will break the captive nuts away from the frame so they just spin. The only way your bed is coming off is with a sawzall or torch.
It depends on how much fuel is in the tank...if it's more than 1/2 it may be a little difficult to drop it. I'm of the "pull off the bed" school...that way you can always check on the condition of the frame rust-wise and see whatever else is happening there.
If the bed bolts are stuck, simply weld a nut on top of the head of the bolt and have a helper stay there holding a wrench on the bolt. Ideally, you'd want to replace the bed bolts with factory pieces, but from what I hear, they're prohibitively expensive.
