Some photo's in no particular order.
Ally painting the rear cross member.
Ally draining the old tank.
The old tank. This is its good side. The liquid on the top it Q20. That's me trying to take off the fuel line connector. More difficult to remove screws...
Me. Lesson - shave before working with grease and dirt. It just ends up all over your face.
The new tank with the old fuel line connector. I finally got the screws out (see previous photo)
***
After owning our Landy for a few weeks we noticed the fuel consumption was a bit high. That and the giant puddle of diesel under the car each time we stopped made us think the tank might be leaking. So here's my step by step guide to change a land rover fuel tank...
First off buy a new tank. Ebay shops seem to be the best place to get them. Nice and easy delivered to your door. Its worth buying all the seals, pipes other parts around the tank that you think may need replacing. You can be sure that if your tank has rusted so badly that it needs replacing other things around the tank will need replacing too.
We booked ourselves into pitstart self service in London. They have a fantastic setup with all the tools you could need and more. I highly recommend them. Check their website pitstartgarage.com. This place is essential for any overland preparation.
Extras we bought for the task were spare nuts & bolts, rust treatment products and jerry cans.
We turned up to Pit Start early on Saturday morning expecting the job to take a few hours. We ended up taking more hours than I care to mention. The Haynes manual always makes these jobs sound so much easier and shorter than they actually are. There are always complications.
We had to remove our rear step and tow hitch. This took a few hours. There is something about 18 year old bolts that make them difficult to remove. In the end I had to cut them off with a hacksaw. An angle grinder was a bit of a fire hazard around our tank.
Removing the pipes and electrics from the tank also takes ages. The angles are difficult to work with. The clamps had completely rusted over the fuel pipes. These had to also be cut off.
It turns out our tank had rusted through the join (tank is constructed in two halves) and through the bottom of the tank! The only thing holding the tank in place was the tank guard.
With the tank removed we cleaned the chassis and general underside of the rear chassis. It turns out there was a few kilo's of mud stuck to everything. Mud is great at holding moisture and helping rust penetrate the metal.
After wire brushing and cleaning the chassis with solvent we sprayed it with pre-primer. As a rust treatment we used POR-15. This is supposed to be the definitive rust treatment primer. Two coats of this and a chassis paint coat on top completed the rust treatment.
Finally the new tank was put in place. Another easier said than done task. Although the replacement part was a good fit getting it in place with the tank guard and reconnecting everything again was another time consuming task.
Land Rover's bolt on bolt off simplicity still stacks up, it just takes a long time to get the bolts off!
First off buy a new tank. Ebay shops seem to be the best place to get them. Nice and easy delivered to your door. Its worth buying all the seals, pipes other parts around the tank that you think may need replacing. You can be sure that if your tank has rusted so badly that it needs replacing other things around the tank will need replacing too.
We booked ourselves into pitstart self service in London. They have a fantastic setup with all the tools you could need and more. I highly recommend them. Check their website pitstartgarage.com. This place is essential for any overland preparation.
Extras we bought for the task were spare nuts & bolts, rust treatment products and jerry cans.
We turned up to Pit Start early on Saturday morning expecting the job to take a few hours. We ended up taking more hours than I care to mention. The Haynes manual always makes these jobs sound so much easier and shorter than they actually are. There are always complications.
We had to remove our rear step and tow hitch. This took a few hours. There is something about 18 year old bolts that make them difficult to remove. In the end I had to cut them off with a hacksaw. An angle grinder was a bit of a fire hazard around our tank.
Removing the pipes and electrics from the tank also takes ages. The angles are difficult to work with. The clamps had completely rusted over the fuel pipes. These had to also be cut off.
It turns out our tank had rusted through the join (tank is constructed in two halves) and through the bottom of the tank! The only thing holding the tank in place was the tank guard.
With the tank removed we cleaned the chassis and general underside of the rear chassis. It turns out there was a few kilo's of mud stuck to everything. Mud is great at holding moisture and helping rust penetrate the metal.
After wire brushing and cleaning the chassis with solvent we sprayed it with pre-primer. As a rust treatment we used POR-15. This is supposed to be the definitive rust treatment primer. Two coats of this and a chassis paint coat on top completed the rust treatment.
Finally the new tank was put in place. Another easier said than done task. Although the replacement part was a good fit getting it in place with the tank guard and reconnecting everything again was another time consuming task.
Land Rover's bolt on bolt off simplicity still stacks up, it just takes a long time to get the bolts off!
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