The ends are rotted off the rear crossmember on my Ford F-150 4X4 1982.

Not a serious problem in itself, because the top of the crossmember is still good- what is rotted is the smaller brackets that bolt to the bottom of the crossmember on each side.

the bracket on the left side, accepts the rear gas tank strap- eventually the strap is going to pull through the bracket, there's almost nothing left of the bracket, and drop the gas tank.

I had both gas tank straps break on separate occasions before, and replaced both of them with new straps. It's a scary situation, because if the tank drops and skids down the road sparking, and gas is leaking from the fuel line, it can ignite and explode. I don't want to be sitting on top of 15 gallons of gas when it goes off.

I really have to fix this problem- does anyone out there have a spare rear crossmember that the rear gas tank strap attaches to ? Or can you direct me to the right source ?

thanks in advance to all of you, for helping keep this old war horse running.

cantedvalveFord

 

let me add this is the left side mounted 16 gallon gas tank, that mounts between the rear axle and cab, just inboard and along the left side/driver's side frame rail

i.e. "saddle tank" (??)

 

I went to the junkyard and got mine, along with some of the other crossmembers. Look the whole situation over, and if a lot of them look rough like mine did, you can go to the junkyard and get them to cut the rear frame section off a good one. It cost me $50.00 as long as I returned the rear springs that were on it.

That's cheap enough, but it does take time to drill all the rivets out on both frames and replace the crossmembers with bolts. I painted mine up too to try to avoid this in the future.

 

nice prep work there

 

Are these interchangeable between F-150, 250, 350?

 

I know from when I ran into this problem a few years ago, the F150 and F350 were not compatable. The F350 parts are much larger. I've no experience with matching to a F250.

 

Thanks. I picked up a 1986 Ford F-250 HD 4x4. The 2 rear cross members will eventually need replaced soon. I live about 1 minute from my local salvage yard and they have a ton of Ford's. I saw a nice early 80's F-150 w/ the bed removed. the cross members were exposed and very nice so I had easy access to the bolts. I was hoping they would fit in my 86 F-250

 

I'm in the same boat, the rear crossmember for the front tank is gone. all the others look rough. What years interchange? I have an '86 F250.

 

I believe most of the crossmembers from the F100 thru F250 2X4 1980 thru 1996 will fit. I have not checked all the crossmembers for this and I have not seen everything.

But I have made the comparrison on crossmembers from 1980 F100 to a 1992 F250, both 2X4 and the crossmembers such as the numbers 1, 2, and 3 from the back were the same thing.

I'm sorry that I am crushed down on these 80 - 86 donor trucks right now but I do have a couple trucks left with good frame parts. You all are welcome to contact me and we can see if I have the right crossmembers to help get that rust off your frame!

864-593-2942 or follow the links thru my web site.
Thanks, Mike.