i am pulling my gas tank from 89 gta to change the fuel pump
& upgrade . do i have to drop the rearend ?
or will the tank come out ?
any suggestions , i have never done this before .

 

Worst job you`ll ever do to a third gen You`ll have to remove the hangers for the exhaust and lower it, remove the heat shields, Panhard bar, the support bar for the attachment point of the panhard, lower shock bolts, then lower rearend the springs should fall out then, Now you should have enough room to lower the tank down on an angle to access the sender,(after you break the strap bolts off in the body) If you want to remove the tank unsrew the bolts by the filler cap and the neck will come out with the tank (all 1 piece) and of course the fuel lines, vent , and electrical hook up. Or cut a hole over the top of the tank sender LOL!
I`m sure other will tell you I`m wrong or let you know of anything I`ve left out , no matter how insignificant

 

Don't forget to buy new tank straps. That way, if you do need to have them, they are there. If not, return them.

 

i had to have my tank replaced in my IROC and i didn't like the sound of what i was getting myself involved in, so i had somebody do it for me. while it was expensive i still think it was the right move, if you are thinking about the cutting the whole in the body to access path, I dont think I would recommend it for a few reasons, one you just got a new whole in your body that you have to cover and two, your gonna have about a 6x6 inch area to work in, as opposed to if you remove it you have a whoe lot more. but that's just me.

 

thanks for the advice & tips
hope to have it out tomorrow !

 

took 2 of us about 1-1/2 to 2 hrs
not bad , modified opening
inside of gas door
thanks

 

How do you put a whole in somthing

 

what do you mean ?

 

a dremel?
please dont use a cutting torch

 

If the new tank does not go in like planned you can enlarge the opening where the neck sticks into the body but you don't need to cut anything.

 

i have a small air saw & cut
3 - 1/2" long cuts then took
a ball ping hammer & rolled the inner lip
of the body where the neck goes in
i can send pictures if anyone is interested

this is unnoticable for anyone to see
it just helps getting the neck of the tank
through the hole

 

I bent the top of the inlet tube a little and it fit just fine.

 

i just took the tank out of the 88 iroc and had no troubles at all getting the neck out of the body? didnt with my 91 formula either. i had the car jacked up pretty high and just twisted the tank while pulling it out and everything worked great.

but what im interested is if anyone had ever done the hole in above the tank to get to the sending unit? im pretty sure this cant work due to the location of the hard fuel lines coming from it and not only that you would have one helluva stink inside the car from the tank venting everytime you filled the tank. the smell would just rise up, i know. some idiot mounted an amp on that panel in my old car and when he took it out to sell the car to me i had 4 screw holes that always let the smell of gas in my car.

 

Well, cutting is kinda permanent and if you don't have to, I would say "Don't". It is not like you are changing your tank pump once a week. I changed my tank after 12 years because it rusted and I decided to do the pump at the same time.

 

Even if you do cut the hole, you'd have to tear the carpet back and replace it. Now you have the hole so how would you secure it? You might have to put a larger piece of metal to cover it back or something. Also, I would think on cars like ours, you would want the tank out to do an inspection so you can decide to get a new tank if it is rusting or fix it up. After all, you don't want to cut the floorboard and possibly weaken it and then find out next year that the tank needs to be replaced.