Hi everyone,

Recently acquired a 91 pickup for my backwoods cabin - in pretty good shape overall but one of the rear brake lines blew after a couple months, and later a fuel leak developed - pulled the bed and found a lump of wet dirt right over the fuel tank that had been sitting there who knows how long, rusting out everything it touched. The tank itself actually looks ok but the fuel sending unit is rusted out. The metal part of sending fuel line basically snapped off from rust, and the bolts/screws holding the sending plate down are too rusty to be removed by conventional means. The screw heads are just mush.

Any suggestions on how to get those screws out? Or other possible solutions? I'd sure like to avoid replacing the whole tank, if I can. Considering options of chiseling the screw heads off and/or drilling them out, but then I suppose I'd have to tap new holes in the tank? I haven't something like that before, but I'm up for trying whatever.

I'm way out in the bush, on a small island in the pacific northwest so I can kinda mod the truck however I want... on the other hand there are no repair shops out here, so it's DIY or die.

This is my first post. Thanks in advance.

 

Monkey wrench, properly adjusted/used. If there is anything to bite that will get it done without crushing them to dust. You can try sawing across the heads but I imagine they're rusted thru pretty well.

You'll need to chase the threads with a tap at the least. But if it's totaly shot you'll need to fab/source a new top plate and source the tank bung(yeah thats probably not it's name but since You'll likely find a similar place at the boat supply..)

There should be a thread here on a DIY replacement for this built from plate steel and AN pipe fittings.

 

Now This is a carbed truck??

Your pretty much on your own.

The easiest fix would be just to drill the screws out then either repair the fuel line connections or just replace that whole part.

Then I would just find the right epoxy just use it in a few spots in case you ever need to remove again.

Then cover the whole sending unit circumference in silicone let it set up.

Put it all back together.

After making sure it starts and runs.

 

Those screws dont look that bad.Take them out with a socket.If they break off ;fine. Break all of them ,remove the sender and screw them out with you fingers.

 

i encountered this exact problem this summer. I tore the bed off my 91 extra cab to replace a cross member. the sender unit was balky as hell so i was going to replace that as well.. but to my surprise i found that all the screws on the sending unit were rotten (pump was fine). i soaked them in liquid wrench a few days and tried as best to take them out gently with a vice grip. I was in for the worse. 4 out of the 7 snapped off So i bought a new tank and sending unit but thats only because its my daily driver and im damn proud of her. now, with out at least 6 screws holding the sending unit down you cant make a good seal but id say, if you cannot save the screws, just tap some new holes, thread them and go with that.

BUT seeing as how your on an island... i mean you could just put a cork in it and roll around with an extra couple 5 gallon jugs in the bed. so long as you dont mess with that fuel pump to the point where you can't thread it back on hahaha. good luck man.