Mr_Dobalina
Member
How close was the tank to falling out before you fixed? Did you have time left or was it so bad you ran the risk of the tank falling off.
Fuel Tank Strap Replacement Tutorial (60+ Pictures)
- Thread starter y=mx+b
- Start date
y=mx+b
New member
If your skid plate is in good condition, but the straps are rusted, the tank will just sit on the skid plate. The tank won't immediately fall out if the straps break. In my case, the front was holding, and the rear had rusted through completely.
I assume it was in the rusted condition for a while. We haven't gotten any real snow and salted roads where I live for the past couple years, so it certainly didn't happened super recently.
Let me know if you have any more questions!
fatalhashbrown
New member
Awesome job! Had the same issue a few months back and actually used super heavy duty zip ties instead of ratchet straps. It worked like a charm!
y=mx+b
New member
Thanks, and that is a great idea! The rigidity of the zip ties probably helped push them through with the tank sitting on the skid. That was one of the struggles with using the ratchet straps, and why I had to take such indirect routes to get them fished through.
y=mx+b
New member
No problem, I hope it helps you. Overall wasn't too bad of a job, you got this!
Definitely some rusty vehicles, I'm slowly chipping away (pun intended lol) at fixing the rust issues. A needle scaler goes a long way towards removing the crusties quickly, then following up with a wire wheel on a grinder to get it down to clean metal. I like the rustoleum rust reformer, its done well for me so far. Haven't had it on for a long time, but will definitely update here, or my thread, on long term performance.
y=mx+b
New member
Thanks, I hope it helps! Let me know if you have any questions
Mike07SE
New member
Thank you for the write-up! Just inadvertently noticed the other day that the rear strap is bust. Hopefully, I have the same success as you with the bolts. Just went ahead and ordered all the hardware to minimize downtime. This is now on the to-do list along with the exhaust falling off! Damn Rust!
y=mx+b
New member
Good call on the hardware, I still haven't gone back and replaced those bolts or that rusty pin but I have the parts now. Just need to get around to replacing them lol. Thanks and I hope the writeup is helpful. Feel free to reach out with any questions!
Glad you liked it, thanks!
I ended up snapping off the bolt on the front strap so I drilled it out. Then I drilled & tapped a piece of scrap steel with a slightly larger thread and welded a piece of metal coat hanger wire to it. I pushed this into a hole in the frame and used the coat hanger wire to manipulate the now threaded chunk of steel so the threads lined up with the hole left when I drilled out the broken bolt. Turned a 1 hour job into an all day thing.
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Mike07SE
New member
Just did this job. This is the best write-up that I've seen covering this. Job was easy. Longest part was restoring the skid plate and letting the paint dry. If not for that I'd say that this was doable in about 30-45 minutes. Liberal application of penetrant on the bolts several days before and the use of a moderate impact gun saved me from any broken hardware headache. Used OEM hardware to replace everything that I removed and went with the LILAND GLOBAL Fuel Tank Straps from Rock Auto as suggested.
I got lucky that only my rear strap was broken. I didn't bother with the ratchet straps and started off by lowering the skid with the jack. If the front of the tank started dropping, I would've gone back up to tie it up.
I also completely jacked the truck up with 6-ton stands which made moving around quite easy. Because of this, I found that a long extension with a swivel joint was able to get to the front inner skid plate bolt with the truck on stands and the rear-end hanging.
All the parts that I used (some P/N's y=mx+b didn't list):
77653-35040 - FUEL TANK PIN X2
77644-35030 - FUEL TANK BOLT (TANK STRAP BOLT) X2
77681-35031 - FUEL TANK BAND (RUBBER STRAP COVER) X1
77681-35041 - TANK STRAP SEAT (RUBBER STRAP COVER) X1
90468-14032 - FUEL TANK CLIP X2
90080-11373 - UNDER COVER BOLT (SKID PLATE BOLTS) X6
I got lucky that only my rear strap was broken. I didn't bother with the ratchet straps and started off by lowering the skid with the jack. If the front of the tank started dropping, I would've gone back up to tie it up.
I also completely jacked the truck up with 6-ton stands which made moving around quite easy. Because of this, I found that a long extension with a swivel joint was able to get to the front inner skid plate bolt with the truck on stands and the rear-end hanging.
All the parts that I used (some P/N's y=mx+b didn't list):
77653-35040 - FUEL TANK PIN X2
77644-35030 - FUEL TANK BOLT (TANK STRAP BOLT) X2
77681-35031 - FUEL TANK BAND (RUBBER STRAP COVER) X1
77681-35041 - TANK STRAP SEAT (RUBBER STRAP COVER) X1
90468-14032 - FUEL TANK CLIP X2
90080-11373 - UNDER COVER BOLT (SKID PLATE BOLTS) X6
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y=mx+b
New member
Thats awesome! Glad the writeup was helpful.
I wonder if the longer shocks helped the suspension droop out more to get the driveshaft down more? I think I didn't have the stock suspension quite flexed/drooped out enough, which probably would have helped me. I have yet to go back and put that bolt in, so its rubbing my driveshaft when the suspension compresses now that I've banged up the skid. I gotta put that bolt back in there soon lol
Mike07SE
New member
You're right and I didn't think about my rear suspension being long travel. That probably did help. Still not impossible to get to, just a PITA.
y=mx+b
New member
I'm glad it could help you! Bummer about the skid, sounds like it just disintegrated lol. At least you made it home with the tank at least somewhat attached, and not on the side of the highway somewhere
y=mx+b
New member
Awesome! Check out the straps while you're under there. It's not much more effort once the skid is off. Painting everything sure makes them look good!
y=mx+b
New member
<a id="skidfix">UPDATE: Extra Strap Pin Replacement + Fuel Tank Skid Fix</a> | <a target="_self" href="!288559!4th-gen-t4rs/288559-fuel-tank-strap-replacement-tutorial-60-pictures.html#nine" >Return to Step 9</a>
Well, 10 months later, I finally got around to replacing that one strap pin and putting the last bolt into the skid.
While Offroading, I got this big ol dent in the front of the tank skid. This caused the skid to sit lower on the tank up front, and the arm with the pesky bolt I never put back to rub the driveshaft. You can see where all of the paint got rubbed off where it was contacting. I zip tied the hanger up the best I could, but it wouldn't sit flush with the frame bracket and would occasionally rub. Turning the radio up fixed the rubbing noise lol.
When I went to try and just replace that bolt to hold everything up, I found the dent was obscuring the skid enough that the hole for the bolt no longer lined up. There was really only one option, which was to drop the skid. I was dreading this, but the whole job only took me about 1.5-2hrs
Now I could pound the dent out. I used a 3lb dead blow
A bit Hard to see, but Before
After
Looking at where the hanger was rubbing the driveshaft, looks like my zip tie job didn't hold it up high enough lol. This bad boy was sharp
While the skid was off, I wanted to replace the rear strap pin. When I originally did this job, I found one of the pins was pretty rusty so I ordered an other. I needed to have it wrapped up over the weekend, and the pin arrived late. Since then, its just been floating around. Heres the rusty one, I previously had to reinstall. It had a decent amount of antiseize left on it when removed, so that was good to see.
So I loosened up the driver side strap bolt just enough to get the pin out and swap in the new one.
I started the tank skid reinstall with the annoying bolt behind the driveshaft. It wasn't really that difficult the second time around. Using an open end wrench, I was able to get a 2/3 turn on the bolt each time. I dunno what was up when I did it the first time around, but it could have been the heat and time getting to me.
I then moved to the three driver side frame bolts. If you're skid is mangled like mine, then a tip is to put a screwdriver through one of the holes in the skid and through the frame hole. Leverage the screwdriver until the skid hole lines up with the frame hole. Then the next bolt in line can be further encouraged with a hammer, or if you're lucky, thread right in without issue. From there, the remaining tank skid bolts are fairly easy
Done for Real
Now this project has been officially completed, I'm satisfied. I wasn't keen on reinstalling that one bolt, but also knew the skid rubbing the driveshaft was not good. In the end, the pesky bolt wasn't too bad, and I'm glad its all complete now
<a target="_self" href="!288559!4th-gen-t4rs/288559-fuel-tank-strap-replacement-tutorial-60-pictures.html#nine" >Return to Step 9</a>
Well, 10 months later, I finally got around to replacing that one strap pin and putting the last bolt into the skid.
While Offroading, I got this big ol dent in the front of the tank skid. This caused the skid to sit lower on the tank up front, and the arm with the pesky bolt I never put back to rub the driveshaft. You can see where all of the paint got rubbed off where it was contacting. I zip tied the hanger up the best I could, but it wouldn't sit flush with the frame bracket and would occasionally rub. Turning the radio up fixed the rubbing noise lol.
When I went to try and just replace that bolt to hold everything up, I found the dent was obscuring the skid enough that the hole for the bolt no longer lined up. There was really only one option, which was to drop the skid. I was dreading this, but the whole job only took me about 1.5-2hrs
Now I could pound the dent out. I used a 3lb dead blow
A bit Hard to see, but Before
After
Looking at where the hanger was rubbing the driveshaft, looks like my zip tie job didn't hold it up high enough lol. This bad boy was sharp
While the skid was off, I wanted to replace the rear strap pin. When I originally did this job, I found one of the pins was pretty rusty so I ordered an other. I needed to have it wrapped up over the weekend, and the pin arrived late. Since then, its just been floating around. Heres the rusty one, I previously had to reinstall. It had a decent amount of antiseize left on it when removed, so that was good to see.
So I loosened up the driver side strap bolt just enough to get the pin out and swap in the new one.
I started the tank skid reinstall with the annoying bolt behind the driveshaft. It wasn't really that difficult the second time around. Using an open end wrench, I was able to get a 2/3 turn on the bolt each time. I dunno what was up when I did it the first time around, but it could have been the heat and time getting to me.
I then moved to the three driver side frame bolts. If you're skid is mangled like mine, then a tip is to put a screwdriver through one of the holes in the skid and through the frame hole. Leverage the screwdriver until the skid hole lines up with the frame hole. Then the next bolt in line can be further encouraged with a hammer, or if you're lucky, thread right in without issue. From there, the remaining tank skid bolts are fairly easy
Done for Real
Now this project has been officially completed, I'm satisfied. I wasn't keen on reinstalling that one bolt, but also knew the skid rubbing the driveshaft was not good. In the end, the pesky bolt wasn't too bad, and I'm glad its all complete now
<a target="_self" href="!288559!4th-gen-t4rs/288559-fuel-tank-strap-replacement-tutorial-60-pictures.html#nine" >Return to Step 9</a>
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