series 2a fuel tank

[tonydrover]

Hi,

New here, although visited several times to use the tech archives for my 90.

Now I have just bought a series 2a with a V8.

It appears the fuel tank is leaking. I have changed several 90 fuel tanks and they are a git. The series looks a bit easier.......Is it, and if so how do you change it?

[ejparrott]

I've never changed a 90 tank, but my 88's tank twice. Its not quite a sod of a job to do, but not far off, given the quality of avaliable parts. The first tank was a Bearmach tank, and that went in fairly easily - it fitted the holes, and its just a job to get the two hoses at the back fed properly on to the spigots and slip properly on. I try to remember to drop the jubilee clips round the tank spigots first. My second tank wzas a Britpart tank, and was a right sod to fit, its jammed hard against the back of the holes in the tub. It was replaced as a result of an accident, but I'm sure it's nothing to do with the bodywork, as thats fitted hard against the tabs on the crossmember as it is!

[Countax]

I did mine yesterday and maybe i was just lucky. I placed a trolley jack under the tank and lifted it into place to locate the fuel filler hose, placed a bolt loosely at the front to take the weight, then moved the jack towards the rear of the tank and just jacked it up and the hose slid easily over the spigot.

I did use the POR15 tank repair kit from Frosts auto to prep my new tank as my last one rusted out and caused me no end of problems blocking up filters. Hopefully this will now be a fit n'forget solution.

Nigel

[tonydrover]

Thanks, that helps a lot.

Had another look at it yesterday and it appears as if it just drops out once the bolts are undone (which I know will be the bugbear).

Not like the 90 one which is weird shaped to fit over the outrigger (if I remember rightly) and thats what makes it awkward.

[De Ranged]

Dont forget to undo the wires on top, in my case the earth wire ran straight to the chassis you'd only get a couple of inches before your hanging on it

[Gazzar]

The big problem that sometimes arises is getting the fuel filler rubber pipe onto the tank, if that goes well then it's a straightforward job.

[tonydrover]

Job done now, not too difficult really. Thought the big problem would have been getting the bolts undone, but they came undone quite easy. Only issue is the anchor nuts for the sender unit must be a bit different to the original tank cos the screws won't go in far enough, and hence the sender unit won't seal.

[De Ranged]

I had this after I did my tank with POR 15, it turned out to be a little bit of paint in the end of the plastic the screw holes that were too shallow I put a little drill bit into .... used a bit of tape on the drill bit and set it in one of the good holes then drilled to the same depth .... problem solved

[Phil Hancock]

I used to find that the original screws were No 10 x 32 UNF thread and the replacements were a metric thread which was a coarser pitch so we told the tank maker to supply the screws with the tanks which was done.

[Pollywog]

Becareful with the rivnuts, I fitted a fuel return to a tank the other day and one of the rivnuts went so I couldn't tighten it down, with no rivnut tool we had to drill the hole out and fiddle a bolt up through the hole from inside the tank so we could put a nut on the top, not an easy job!