Leaking Gas Tank....Replacement options?

My father-in-law decided to sandblast the rust off my under seat gas tank to get it ready for painting. Guess that wasn't such a good idea...as it now leaks. Oh well, most likely would've sprung a leak soon anyway.

Seeing as I need to replace the tank I thought I'd relocate it outside the cab. From what I've read it appears I could install a rear mounted 15gal gas tank from a 78 CJ or newer. This would require cutting out the bracing for my drawbar on the rear bumper, running new gas lines and fabing a new filler hole for the tank. Do I have this correct?

Thanks


Mike

 

i think a tank from an intermediate 71 to 75 would fit better the 75 and up has a wider frame in the rear and the tank may be larger as well

 

I brased mine ,it had about 10 pin holes , got a few more years out of it , I filled it with water , for a little bit then dumped it and let it air dry for about a week , used a small 000 tip with really low heat .

 

No way would I use an open flame on a tank that had ever had fuel in it.

If you want to try and fix the tank, you can coat the inside or the bottom with various tank repair compounds. I have repaired tanks with fiberglass and resin ... the body man where I used to work used bondo. Today I'd likely use an epoxy of some kind - you can get many different kinds of epoxies from industrial supply places, like McMaster-Carr.

Or just buy a new tank. Plenty of discussion of that in older posts.

For the rear tank, I recall that the tanks through 1978 or thereabouts will fit - they are the same size as the intermediate tanks. Check Boyink's site for some good pictures of the rear tank install: http://boyink.com/cj6/gas-tank-installing-rear/

 

My tank had rust holes when I cleaned it up. JB Weld did the trick. Haven't had any problems, although I do keep an eye on it!

 

If you can get some dry ice, put that in it then weld. The old metal gas tanks they used at gas stations they would put dry ice in them and then cut them up

 

I realize you can repair tanks...but I'd like to relocate it outside the cab...gaining an extra 5 gals of capacity is a bonus as well.

Sterlclan

The 78 may have wider frame rails but the after market poly tank from MTS Company (http://www.mtscompany.com/jeep.htm) are the same dimmensions for the 1972-1977 Jeep® CJ 15gal and the 1978-1986 Jeep® CJ 15gal...Dimensions (16" x 23" x 10")..Not positive this holds true for the original tanks. Guess I'll have to remove the one from the 78 and measure it.

Tim,

Thanks for the link...from the write up Boyinks did he used parts from a 78 CJ. Seeing as I have a donor 78 CJ at my disposal I figured I'd just grab the skid plate and tank and remove my brace for the drawbar and put er in. Though I am not sure how I am gonna deal with filler opening just yet. Suppose using a CJ7 filler plate and relocating the filler whole behind the rear wheel on the drive side would suffice...Maybe I can take the filler plate off the 78.

 

Well now I am confused what 15 gal tank will fit. Seems the 15 gal steel tanks for the 1978-1986 CJ dimensions are (25 1/4 x 18 1/4 x 10 7/8) on 4WD.com. But at MTS Company, their poly tanks dimensions are (16" x 23" x 10"). Can anyone confirm if they've done this mod with the larger dimension (25 1/4 x 18 1/4 x 10 7/8) or the smaller (16" x 23" x 10") on an 66 CJ5...


Thanks again

 

A '66 never came with a rear tank - the rear tank started in mid 1970. This size tank (with some venting changes) continued through 1975. There was a revision for 1976 that changed the way the tank was secured to the Jeep - the brackets that hold the tank to the frame were eliminated, and instead the tank was strapped down to the skid plate, and the skid plate supported the tank.

The intermediate Jeeps have the same distance between the frame rails as the early Jeeps, so that size of tank will fit. That size tank was carried through to the 1976 model ... then there is a size (?) change after a few years... maybe it's mid 1978, maybe 1979 - not certain.

I'd suggest you measure the donor tank you have, compare with the MTS figures - looking at the MTS page, the change was in '78. Looks like the size is the same, but the fill/vent inlet is different. Compare with Boyink's pics, your donor tank and the MTS page. Overall size should be ok, as long as the filler neck will work.

 

I can confirm that this works. A friend of mine used to weld up the BIG multi-thousand gallon tanks that are used in tank farms. All they did was back their trucks up to the tank, put hoses over their exhaust pipes and run the other end of the hoses into the tank. They'd run their engines for 30 -45 minutes and it would fill the tanks with CO2 and they could safely weld on it. CO2 sinks relative to air so the tanks would readily hold it and even if there was some air left in the tank, the CO2 would form an incombustible layer above the fuel and between it and any remaining air.