Replacing a cracked fuel line at the tank.

[Oldbag373861]

Sent: 8/9/2006 2:16 AM

When I pulled into my driveway after a camping trip yesterday I smelled gas. Oh boy! I never take that lightly. Sure enough as i looked under the rig I spotted a drip, and heard a sizzle. gas was spraying out of the top of the fuel tank and onto the exhaust! Cooled things down with a hose and waited to see what was going on.
i found that gas was spraying out of the flexible gas line coming out of the top of the tank and connecting with the main metal line. Now to fix it.
I tried every which way to get my hands into the tight place between the chassis beam and the floor, but to no avail. I realized I would have to drop the tank. Could it be that hard? :-)
I jacked the tank up so it wouldn't fall, then started loosening the supports.The rear tank strap wasn't that hard to cut the bolt off, but the front strap was another story! The strap came up to a transverse member right between the chassis beam and the stair well. Too tight to cut with a sawsall. Finally used a small hack saw and crow bar to pop it loose. Now I could lower the tank, and the hoses were pretty easy to replace. Next I jacked the tank back up.
Again pretty easy. But what about getting bolts back in between the straps and the cross members? Well, that was pretty hard! Once again, the back strap wasn't the killer, but trying to get a bolt up into the tight space between the stair well and tank and into the hole and then put a nut on it and tighten it with no wrench clearance took me three hours of knuckle busting contortions. Oh man! And I must have had a pound of mud, grease and sand to wash out of my hair. I would like to meet the genius who designed that rig. probably long dead by now.
I had to use 1/4 inch bolts instead of the 5/16. Hope they hold OK!





From: Cooneytoones
Sent: 8/12/2006 7:36 AM

I think 1/4 inch bolts will surfice OK on holding the tank as long as they are tight and don't have any movement from vibrations.
I guess I was lucky with mine....there was just enough room, (but had to do it blind) to reach my arm between the outside skin and over the tank, around each of the filler tubes. It wasn't easy, but much easier than the way you had to do it...I had one bad hose, but decided to change all three.
One on the main tank, and two on the auxiliary tank.
The original clamps on the tank inlet were wire type squeeze clips, I changed them to the regular everyday 5/16 screw type clamps...that was the hardest part,,,getting the clamps tight. I used a 1/4 in drive socket with a long extension....It worked, and I don't want to have to do it for another 30 years......

T