Can't drop fuel tank

Hi everyone,

I'm spraying gas from the top of my gas tank. I tried to drop the tank to see what the problem is and fix it but the bolts holding it up won't budge. So I'm considering removing some carpet in the back and cutting a 12"x12" hole in the floor so I can access the gas tank from above. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about doing this without destroying my interior?

I used the 'search' function and found several posts for 'remove fuel tank'. Here's a link to one of the threads.
http://www.blazerforum.com/m_43452/tm.htm

You are really much better off either cutting the straps that hold the tank up or breaking off the bolts on the straps themselves with some good old fashioned muscle.  Reason I state to break off the bolts is because you don't want to go throwing sparks if gas is present...  Cutting a hole in the floor presents the same difficulties with fuel vapors present...  Destroying your interior would be a mute point if the truck caught on fire...

Anyway, hope this helps!!

Have you sprayed them with some liquid wrench?

dude find a wrench that fits the nuts. lock them down with a pair of vice grips. trust me it works i dropped my tank and  this is the method i used.  good luck

Best of luck with it. We had a fuel pump go out on a '91 s-10 pickup and it ended up just being easier to take the bed off and do the work that way.

You might want to check on the price and availibility on a new set of tank staps and bolts and like Kyle said, break the staps or bolts.
 

Well guys, I think I'm giving in and taking to a garage this week to let them do it.

Well...I took it to a garage. It turned out, as I suspected, the sending unit needed replaced. They charged me $95 for the part (resonable) but I ended up paying $112 for labor.

ouch you coulda saved some money there remember one thing patience is key to fixing your rig if you get mad or frustrated take a break and come back to it especially if there is rust present or something preventing an easy fix have patience, with them you will save money and gain knowledge!!

quote:

ORIGINAL: thegr81

ouch you coulda saved some money there remember one thing patience is key to fixing your rig if you get mad or frustrated take a break and come back to it especially if there is rust present or something preventing an easy fix have patience, with them you will save money and gain knowledge!!

You're right there bro, but this Blazer is my only form of transportation. I hated getting raped, but I needed it fixed soon as possible.

It looks like a fairly reasonable bill and it was probably back on the road for you fairly quickly, so probably a good decision.

The straps are hard to break on these things especially if they are stock, I am in the same boat, my tank leaks( have a new tank) from the top and bottom and the straps that I ordered many times over from different companies always end up being for the S-10 not the T-10, salvage your stock straps if you can.

I didn't replace the straps...they managed to get the bolts off.

did they use wd-40 or beak loose maybe they just used air tools that usually works all the time lol

By using a bit of patience and a lot of penetrating lube, I'm sure things came apart pretty good.  Air tools on rusted bolts are sometimes good, sometimes bad.  There is a much higher likelyhood of rounding off a nut with air tools, especially on nuts/bolts that have been riddled with rust, decreasing their effective flat to flat width.

Glad you were able to get everything apart.

I am glad you got it done.
 
On my '87 I had the same trouble. All my strap bolts were rusted in place. PB Blaster and impact tools didn't do much. Flame was out of the question. That left me with the old fashioned method, leverage.
 
I placed a closed end wrench on the nut and spun the bolt so the wrench seated against the gas tank. Then i added enough extensions to get my rachet down far enough so that I could get a 3' long piece of pipe on the handle of the rachet. Then its just a matter of muscle. If your a 90 pound weekling, you need a longer piece of pipe. Longer the handle, the more torque, more torque the easier it is to break the bolts free, or twist them in half. I ended up twisting several bolts in half. No big deal, I swung by my local hardware store and picked up some new grade 8 stuff.