yeah getting there. ended up torching the head off the front bolt, and grinding off the heads of the bolts that bolt those brackets to the frame. i then took a punch and nocked the bolts lose. though because of clearance, or lack of clearance issues, the front bolt doest have room to come out with the end still stuck in the spinning cage nut. sooooo tomorrow night we'll grind off the heads of the bolts that hold the bracket to the tank and pop the bolts out, shimmy it out, and then do a dance to celebrate that ****er being out lol.
Books would mostly be available fron C&G Ford in Californis. The '42 shop manual is reproduced by Portrayal press, military vehicle book store online.
ITS OUT!!! it ended up taking a 4 inch grinder, a torch, an airpowered speedy cutter, a wrench, a hammer, a punch, a screw driver, a razor knife and roughly 20 actual hours of dedicated work time but that damn thing is out of the car! finaly! now to figure out how to get the filler neck out of the fender.... haha
I think slot of the time was spent laying under the car staring at it trying to figure a way to get it out with out destroying everything. I learned my lesson waaaaay long ago that sitting and staring instead of hacking away at it will land you about the same time investment in the end and probably money ahead. I ended up torching the front bolt head off and then using a small air powered cut off wheel to nip the shank down. Then all bolts that go to the rear bracket, both frame and tank sides, were ground off. Then after losening the band clamp on the fuel neck and getting no results I razor knifed the rubber and it came out. Of course I previously un screwed the fuel fitting and cut the old sender wires before hand. Now onto cleaning, getting new nuts/bolts for mounting and getting that super stuck veeeery rounded drain plug out....
I just unbolted all the bolts on the fuel tank and the Z brackets 7 bolts all total........ I too am working without a lift! Do you have to slide the tank to the left or right or forward to drop the tank down? I did find it easier to unbolt the rear sway bar to get to the spring nut in the front of the tank.
Gees, I just looked at the last time this email was read...2011! I hope this request reopens the thread... Mike
Those little Z brackets aren't that hard to make if you ****** up the original ones-either put a double bend in a piece of flat steel-or weld two pieces of angle steel together. I bought cage nuts at a fastener store and welded them on-no need to try to save or re-use that rusty beat up old ****.
I found no need to remove the Z brackets. Just the 2 rear bolts on the tank and the forward spring bolt. I did have to unbolt the rear sway bar to get to the spring nut. I did find a plate with 2 capture nuts on the rear 2 bolts. Moved the tank forward over the buggy spring and she came right down! Thanks, Mike
Geez, after reading this whole thread I am glad the previous owner of my 46 had removed the tank before I bought it ! Don
It seems the biggest problem with the other stories were rusted bolts.....I'm glad I didn't have that problem!
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