94 Ram bad fuel pump - how to drain gas tank?

Take the bed off the truck.

That sucker is HEAVY, especially with camper shell and bed liner; also would need to disconnect a few wires.

I want to get the tank out anyway - what's a good way to clean out a gas tank, remove and rust and gunk??

thnx

Mike K

How full is it?

I'm guessing about 6 or 7 gallons

Mike K

That's no big deal....you should be able to lower that to the ground.

Agreed. The tank should be a plastic one, so with 6 gallons, it shouldn't be much heavier then a 5 gallon jerry can. It would be much more cumbersome.

A motorcycle jack works great for dropping the tank.

You can undo the fill tube and get your tube into the tank from there. That's how I did mine with 25 gallons in it.

Fuel pumps usually don't go bad when you have a near empty tank. Don't ask me how they know!

beekeep

Use a scrap of plywood and a floor jack. You will have to disconnect the fill hose and there are some hoses swaged on at the top of the tank. You have to lower the tank a little and get the hoses off. There is not a lot of play. Be sure you can support the tank while you cut the swages off the hoses. On my truck the hose from the fuel pump to the round plastic plate in the top of the tank broke off. The pump was working but no fuel came out. Autozone had the OEM pump.

Al

That's a good idea about undoing the fill tube to siphon the tank, and obvious (once someone said it!).

re fuel pump and empty tank : apparently the gasoline keeps the fuel pump cool, when tank is almsot empty, pump can overheat (from what I've read on the web).

Thnx

Mike K

Al,

I had heard that the fuel filter is "part of" the pump module, but I've seen internet auto parts sites selling the filter by itself (for ~$40!)

Just want to double check: is filter replaceable once I get the module out? I'm going to order a filter no matter what, but I'm hoping to get lucky and not actually need a ($200) fuel pump.

PS what is a "swage" ? the short rubber hose pieces used to join the fuel line to the tank???

Thnx MikeK

See! And you all said beekeep was good fer nuthin'

;^)

Mike

Mike,

You need to check but I'm almost sure the filter is in the tank. The hoses have Aluminum sleeves on the ends that are swaged. It's like a crimp in an electrical terminal. I cut mine with a flexible shaft cutoff tool to keep the motor away from any fuel fumes.

Al

On some versions of the pump assembly, the filter is replaceable but it is still in the tank with the pump.

Exactly how long do you think this pump is going to last? It would really suck to take the tank down, spend the time rebuilding the pump assembly, reinstall it back into the tank and then have the damn thing fail again a year later because the old pump finally gave out.

The filter can actually be cleaned if it's the same as on my Ram...which I imagine it is.

Get a cheap tranny Jack.

I heard that because of the heat generated by modern fuel pumps (with the higher pressures and constant runs), that frequently running your gas down towards empty could end up shortening the life of the pump.

The gas itself helps cool the pump so running the tank down toward empty frequently, means the pump runs hotter for longer periods of time.

I know I typically run my tank down low and did end up replacing my fuel pump at about 90K miles, which I thought was a tad on the premature side.

SMH