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That gosh darn petro tank!

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Howard_The_Duck

Howard_The_Duck

Jedi Warrior
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Hey guys,

Im Zack, as you may or may not know, I am the evil spawn of Randi!

No seriously, I'm her son, and I'm hard at work at my new project, a 1971 MGB GT.

I do have a question concerning removing the gas tank, as I tried to get that bad boy down last night to no avail. It appeared there were 3 screws from the trunk, going down.

There were also 4 studs that ran down from the trunk, and the tank was secured by nuts/washers.

Ive removed those, as well as unplugged all fuel lines and the fuel evaporator tank in the right side rear fender, but the tank is still hesitant to come down. Is this a 2 person job, or is there another set of fasteners im not seeing? It appears that the tank is hanging up on the back side, against the rear panel near the license plate.

If anyone has any ideas about this, please let me know. I would be greatly appreciative!

Thanks
Zack
 
Hey Zack, I pulled my gas tank this summer to put a new fuel sender in to work with my Autometer and on the midget I think there were two bolts coming down on each side with nuts and washers holding the tank up from the bottom for a total of 8. However, my gas tank wouldn't come down either and even though I had detatched everything from the bottom, I had forgotten the biggest and most obvious part... The fuel filler hose in the trunk!! D'oh! All I had to do was loosen that one hose clamp and then it came down with no problem. Might not be your problem but just a reminder that sometimes if you look too hard you'll miss the obvious.
 
Not sure if this applies to the B, as I have a Midget, but I just dropped my tank last weekend to replace, and after removing the mounting bolts, it stayed up. Turns out that the two gasket strips that were installed between the tank and the body, some type of fiberous material, were so gunked up that they were acting like double sided tape with Krazy Glue, and were holding the tank up firm. Once I ascertained that there were indeed no more mounting bolts, nuts (wire bristle brush around the tank flange), and as lesingpsycho stated, triple checked all hoses, lines, and linkeage above and below, I put the trusty flatbar into service and was able to free the tank, though I now need to replace the gaskets, which were ruined, when I install my new tank, hopefully this weekend.

just my 2 cents (1.4 after taxes)
 
Hello Howard,

I also did my tank about a year ago. I'd only add that there are a few of machine screws/bolts that are around the perimeter of the tank that are inserted from inside the trunk. There are a couple along the edge of the tank in front of the license tag which are a bitch to get at - I had to get an adjustable on two of the flats on the nut on the underside (between the cowling and the back of the tank). That nut is supposed to be held in place by a tab (or maybe a clip with a tab) that is bent over next to the hole but the corrosion on the bolt/nut forced the tab over so that it wouldn't hold the nut anymore...that was my biggest problem. I had to have someone (my wife) turn the bolt while I got under the car and eyeballed the nut...definately a 2 person job imo. Good luck.

Jim
 
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