1972 cj5 gas tank removal

[hookemtoro]

I just bought my first jeep and I am very excited about getting started with it but I have already hit a snag. The seller told me when I bought it that the gas tank had a lot of junk/crud in it and that it needed to be drained/cleaned/replaced. The day I bought it (test drove it too, ran ok) I was running it in the driveway and it died after about five minutes. The fuel filter was full of gunk and I remembered what the previous owner said so I replaced the filter and put a couple gallons of gas in it. No gas was getting to the filter at all. I called a friend who has pulled gas tanks off vehicles before and we attempted to pull the tank to check the fuel lines, clean out the tank and check the fuel pump.

Now for the big question... how the heck do you get the tank off?!? The chilton manual says remove 6 bolts and carefully lower tank but after removing gravel shield we only found 3 bolts. It was incredibly frustrating, the tank still seems solidly attached and this supposedly simple job is standing between me and my new jeep. Anyone that has pulled the tank from a 71-73 CJ5 and can help please give me some tips.

Also, while frustrated I added more gas and now would love to "remove the drain plug and drain any remaining gas" as chilton states but I don't see a drain plug either.

 

[JR74CJ5]

Just the 2 rear corner bolts (which are a pain...) and the forward center bolt / bracket should be all that is holding it, but it takes some twisting and working with it to get it all clear of the frame... There, to my Limited knowledge, is not drain plug on the tank... I've had mine on and off a lot latley, but still not positive that my set up is actually "correct"... But i think you're getting hung up on the edge of the tank / frame. Or on the fill neck / vent tube...

Mines a passenger side fill neck, I believe yours in in the rear? Might look that over a little closer too, but i think same tank and fits same too...




~ JR

 

[khass0410]

May be an old thread but I am doing this now on my 75 and I have been twisting pushing up and down moving back and forth and getting NO where. Ha any suggestions before I get to high on gas fumes from the tank?

 

[DHugg]

May be an old thread but I am doing this now on my 75 and I have been twisting pushing up and down moving back and forth and getting NO where. Ha any suggestions before I get to high on gas fumes from the tank?

Here's a checklist I found and saved when I (4 months ago) replaced the OEM steel tank with $160 poly-plastic tank on my '80 CJ7 . May your woes be short-lived!

Gas Tank Replacement

When replacing a gas tank, usually it means that the gas tank has started to leak due to age, rust, or a puncture hole. In the case of the Red Jeep, our over anxious nature during the installation of the 1" Daystar Body lift during the winter months doing various projects to it caused the filler neck to start leaking. In short, we lifted up the body without removing the filler hose and the filler neck bent upwards causing a leak at the base of the filler tube on the gas tank. The tank looked to be original and repaired previously, so it was time to get a new gas tank. We decided to go with a stock replacement metal tank, you can go with poly, it is up to you and your preference.

We ordered the Gas Tank and Sending Unit kit from 4wd.com and it arrived a few days later. Everything we needed arrived at once and we were ready to start installation of the gas tank.



In order to remove the gas tank, the 4 bolts on the rear cross member were removed as well as the front 3 bolts on the frame support and a jack was used to lower the gas tank down. We were able to remove all but 1 or so gallon of gas from the gas tank prior to lowering it down. This makes for a lot easier handling of the gas tank. There are 2 hoses connected to the top of the tank that need to be disconnected, one for the main fuel line and one for the return line. Finally, the sending unit gas gauge wire and a ground wire that is connected to the frame rail also must be disconnected.



The sending unit is next. I removed the old one and although it seemed to be in good shape, the fuel filter sock on the base looked to be dirty, so a new one was ordered up. The kit came with a new O-ring, as well as a hold down ring, so with a little Vaseline, we lubed up the O-ring, installed the sender into the tank and secured it with the hold down ring.

2 things to keep in mind here. If you want your gas gauge to read correctly, you need to test the unit. We hooked up the gas gauge sending unit wire and then ground and turned the key. We bent the tabs on the sending unit to read correctly for "Empty" and "Full". After that was done, it was installed. When you install the sending unit, you need to make sure that they float is in the middle of the tank for optimum reading. You don't want to install it so it hits the sides and gets stuck, this will give you false results.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

So, my lessons learned here would have to be that you should really be aware of all possibilities of damage when doing other projects that might affect other areas of the Jeep. If you do this, you won't incur other damage to the Jeep.

If you are replacing this, a second set of hands never hurts and having very little gas in the tank makes for ease of removal of the old tank. Keep in mind that you are doing work around gas fumes, so keep the area vented and make sure there are no sparks.

Conclusions

This is a pretty easy installation to do, it takes a couple of hours and you will be back up and running. We cleaned the skid plate out and reused it. There was a lot of debris as well as some nuts and bolts in there.

You will also want to use some old inner tube rubber that you have lying around to put between the skid plate and the gas tank as this will help to avoid squeaking and rubbing of the new tank and the old skid plate. Take your time and this should be an easy installation/replacement.

Take your time and good luck!

 

[khass0410]

Here's a checklist I found and saved when I (4 months ago) replaced the OEM steel tank with $160 poly-plastic tank on my '80 CJ7 . May your woes be short-lived!

Gas Tank Replacement

When replacing a gas tank, usually it means that the gas tank has started to leak due to age, rust, or a puncture hole. In the case of the Red Jeep, our over anxious nature during the installation of the 1" Daystar Body lift during the winter months doing various projects to it caused the filler neck to start leaking. In short, we lifted up the body without removing the filler hose and the filler neck bent upwards causing a leak at the base of the filler tube on the gas tank. The tank looked to be original and repaired previously, so it was time to get a new gas tank. We decided to go with a stock replacement metal tank, you can go with poly, it is up to you and your preference.

We ordered the Gas Tank and Sending Unit kit from 4wd.com and it arrived a few days later. Everything we needed arrived at once and we were ready to start installation of the gas tank.



In order to remove the gas tank, the 4 bolts on the rear cross member were removed as well as the front 3 bolts on the frame support and a jack was used to lower the gas tank down. We were able to remove all but 1 or so gallon of gas from the gas tank prior to lowering it down. This makes for a lot easier handling of the gas tank. There are 2 hoses connected to the top of the tank that need to be disconnected, one for the main fuel line and one for the return line. Finally, the sending unit gas gauge wire and a ground wire that is connected to the frame rail also must be disconnected.



The sending unit is next. I removed the old one and although it seemed to be in good shape, the fuel filter sock on the base looked to be dirty, so a new one was ordered up. The kit came with a new O-ring, as well as a hold down ring, so with a little Vaseline, we lubed up the O-ring, installed the sender into the tank and secured it with the hold down ring.

2 things to keep in mind here. If you want your gas gauge to read correctly, you need to test the unit. We hooked up the gas gauge sending unit wire and then ground and turned the key. We bent the tabs on the sending unit to read correctly for "Empty" and "Full". After that was done, it was installed. When you install the sending unit, you need to make sure that they float is in the middle of the tank for optimum reading. You don't want to install it so it hits the sides and gets stuck, this will give you false results.

Lessons Learned the Hard Way

So, my lessons learned here would have to be that you should really be aware of all possibilities of damage when doing other projects that might affect other areas of the Jeep. If you do this, you won't incur other damage to the Jeep.

If you are replacing this, a second set of hands never hurts and having very little gas in the tank makes for ease of removal of the old tank. Keep in mind that you are doing work around gas fumes, so keep the area vented and make sure there are no sparks.

Conclusions

This is a pretty easy installation to do, it takes a couple of hours and you will be back up and running. We cleaned the skid plate out and reused it. There was a lot of debris as well as some nuts and bolts in there.

You will also want to use some old inner tube rubber that you have lying around to put between the skid plate and the gas tank as this will help to avoid squeaking and rubbing of the new tank and the old skid plate. Take your time and this should be an easy installation/replacement.

Take your time and good luck!

Lol, thanks I was just needing to drop it to get my old shackles off and bushings out, for my new shackles but in the process I did break something on there heres some pics.