Changine the fuel pump in a wagon without dropping the tank.

[GoodSamaritan]

Well the 88 wagon I got for free, ran great for a bit, then suddenly the fuel pressure dropped to almost nothing.

I've already got all the interior pulled out of it, due to windows being down when I got it. I even pulled the aluminum up in the cargo area exposing the cable that goes to the fuel pump and sender unit.

The one tank I've pulled from a wagon was on an 87 and it was a major pain. I couldn't get the filler neck out of the body, or the tank, even with every bolt I could find removed.

Needless to say this has motivated me to find a different way to access the fuel pump.

I've seen a bunch of cars with holes cut in the trunk to access the fuel pump through. I was wondering if anyone has done it on a wagon? If so, did you run into any nasty surprises.



I plan to seal the hole up with screws and a healthy dose of caulk, and a bigger piece of metal. Not to mention putting a layer of that roofing patch/sound deadener over it.

GS

[phayzer5]

try some wd-40 or pb blaster on the rubber grommet... it was a bitch to remove when the tank's been dropped during my Lincoln's phases

[JD's Toy]

that tank lays pretty flat up against that well in the rear end. you'd be hard pressed to cut through the sheetmetal floor and not go into the tank.

i'd drop the tank... don't wanna have to buy a fuel pump and a new tank.

[mrltd]

Not gonna happen. only way you could make an access is to dro pthe tank, then cut it. I didn't have any problems gettign the tank out of mine, even with the huge exhaust in the way.

[Martin Blank]

I did it in my '91 Mercury Cougar. In that car the tank was under the back seat. I pulled out the seat and drilled a hole in the sheet metal using a drill stop on the bit so I wouldn't hit the tank. Looking through the hole you can get your bearing and see where the pump access is located. Then I used a power nibbler to cut out a hole large enough to get the pump out. The nibbler worked great but tin snips would do also, just something that cuts the metal without penetrating very deep. When I was done putting in the new pump I cut out an oversized piece of sheet metal and bent it to shape. I drilled some pilot holes (again using a drill stop), put RTV under the plate to seal it up and pop-riveted the plate in place.

[GoodSamaritan]

I've only pulled one tank from a panther wagon before. It was a royal pain.
I never could get the filler neck to separate from the body. I pulled every bolt I could find, but I ended up yanking the filler tube out of the tank.
Since I was scrapping the car it wasn't a big deal as I wasn't going to put it back. Even so, I was wondering if I had an odd one, or is that par for the course?

[1987cp]

The worst trouble I've had with tanks is getting the straps bolted back in. Getting the filler neck out was annoying but not as bad as disassembling a muffler-clamped exhaust system without a nice exhaust puller tool. If you get the studs out with a stud puller set (think they're metric ...), it should be easy to chase the threads on the bolt holes and run nice new bolts in there with antisieze. I do recall that on the '87 wagon, one of the straps never got tightened quite all the way, but I never determined whether or not that was due to my substituting a different fuel tank (replacement for a '79 carbed vehicle).

[gadget73]

i think there are only 4 bolts holding the fill neck in, but there are another 4 holding a rubber bootie over the 4 bolts you actually need to remove. Seems to me the bootie you unbolt from under the gas fill door, and once thats pushed out of the way, you'll find 4 more from the back side of the fill neck. Once thats out, it should just pull out of the tank, though they do get stuck on the rubber doodad.