I rescued an ’88 F150 4x4 from the junkyard, got it going good enough to get it to my house. I’m still going through it testing things out to see if it’s worth putting any money into. While driving home, at first it wouldn’t shift gears but that seems to have cleared up now. The fuel gauge doesn’t work and I severely miscalculated how much fuel was in it, so now I have a completely filled 19 gallon fuel tank with a bad pump in it. What’s your opinion on putting a new fuel pump in a rusty tank just long enough to drain some of that weight out and continue checking the transmission and transfer case out.

 

If you're just worried about getting the tank light enough to drop it, just get a handheld siphon pump for about $10 at the auto parts store. I wouldn't recommend continuing to run the truck with a rusty tank unless you want to end up replacing the entire fuel system from tank to injectors when the mud gets circulated through the whole thing.

 

I just got done dealing with a tank with older slightly varnished gas in it and I could never get the truck to run right until I got every last ounce of old bad gas out of it but surprisingly the tank itself was clean like new in side. The front tank had not been used for quite a few years and it on the other hand was all rusty and nasty inside and the old gas that was in it smelled so bad it almost made me sick to my stomach. Needless to say that tank got scrapped. In reality you wont really know what condition your tank is in until you get a look inside. I'd siphon as much gas as possible out and if it comes out dirty and rusty you might as well figure on replacing the tank as well. If the gas comes out fairly clear then I'd pull the filler tube hose off to possibly get a look inside with a mirror to see how nasty the tank is before you drop it all the way but regardless you're going to have to drop the tank anyway to install a fuel pump. Good Luck