Yep... that's them
Every time I see those.. I am glad you are here to share them!!!! It wasn't your day that day......
Every time I see those.. I am glad you are here to share them!!!! It wasn't your day that day......
Bronco Fuel Tank Install
- Thread starter IDIBRONCO
- Start date
The_Josh_Bear
Full Access Member
Wasn't he thrown from the cab and walked away? If so it WAS his day. By the look of that cab we had all better not get into a roll over accident in one of these rigs.
Big Bart
Tow&Slow
That must of been one heck of a ride. Glad you were not hurt!
Cross off one more of your 9 lives. Spent the rest wisely!
Cross off one more of your 9 lives. Spent the rest wisely!
IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
I'm not sure if it was or wasn't my day, Either way, it didn't feel like it was later. It was closer to staggering away. I had to use my hands as well as my feet to climb up that hill. And yes,I was thrown out. That's the only reason that I was still alive. That and the soft ground from the large amount of rain that had/was still falling
This was the second time that I cheated death. When I was 15, I was climbing around where I shouldn't have been in Colorado. I fell an estimated 60 feet (I think it was more, but no one else was around to witness it). I had a few stitches, had a HUGE bruise on my left hip, and had to learn how to walk again since I couldn't move anything from my left hip down. I was doped clear put of awareness in intensive care for three days. Eight days, later, I walked out of the hospital. I don't know whether it's nine lives or three strikes and I'm out. I figure that I should probably be careful just in case. Then again, I do love to ride three wheelers in the mountains in Colorado, so I'm not sure how careful I'm actually being.
Anyway, who wants to take a ride with me?
IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
I really don't remember much of the ride. If I had been wearing a seat belt, I wouldn't have been thrown out and I wouldn't have made it. When the sheriff's deputy came to fill out an accident report, he didn't even ask me if I'd been wearing a seat belt. I guess that was kind of obvious. These days, I do wear one, but that one time was the exception to the rule of them saving lives.
IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
One final comment on that red truck. These pictures show why I finally named it "The Red Wreck". It didn't have a name before.
IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
I got a little bit more done tonight, but ran into a couple of issues. More on those later. It wasn't all that hot, but the humidity was up so I finally tried out my new air mover from Orscheln. I couldn't have done very much at all if not for it. I sure am glad that I bought it now.
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IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
On to the install. First I got out the new lock ring and gasket. Then I was wondering how to get the shower head off of the pickup. Surprisingly, it just slid off in one piece. I wanted to make sure that I had enough fuel line on the pick up, but I went overboard. It will just lay on the bottom of the tank. I got the tank all dressed up and then went to work on the straps. I cut up an old inner tube into strips for cushions on the straps. I didn't plan far enough ahead to glue them on yesterday, so I made due by wrapping electrical tape around them to hold the cushions on. Not the best, but the tank will hold them on after the straps are tight anyway. I almost forgot to mention that I used the vent hose from the rollover valve and shoved it onto the old return fitting to use that as a vent now.
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IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
Now is when I ran into my first issue. The neck on the tank itself (at least on the one that I bought) is 1/4" larger than the one off of the truck tank. A little liquid lubrication, a pocket sized screwdriver to help pull the hose over the neck, plus a very liberal amount of four letter words and it went on. For anyone who wants to try this, do not try this with an old hose. This one is 8 years old and it still gave me quite a fight. You can see the extra bulge in the hose in the picture. Now the old tank was completely bare so I got to throw it into the bed of the Treasure Hunt truck to wait to be hauled off to the scrap yard. This is where I've been throwing all of the scrap metal that I've come across even if it's not much at this point.
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IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
Going up! The poor execution of the exhaust system was giving me clearance issues, so I had to get a little bit creative. and the tank went all the way up.
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IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
Here is where I ran into the major obstacle. I ordered the tank straps that were supposed to go with this tank. They were FS26 or something like that. The problem is that they are at least 12" too short. I guess that the frame on my truck is built differently than a Bronco's frame. Well that isn't an unsurmountable problem, just one that will take a little bit more creativity. I didn't want to drop the tank back out so I installed some temporary tank straps. I will create my solution tomorrow and get the permanent ones back under the tank where they belong.
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IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
On to finishing the installation of the rest of the parts. I installed the filler neck and the rest of the hose. You can see the double clamps in the picture where I had to extend the hose because the filler neck is the wrong one. Next up was the new vent line. I installed one of my "custom" chaffing preventers when the vent hose runs over the frame and the crossmember. And hooked it up to the elbow in the metal filler neck I think that it looks pretty good. Maybe not quite up to Wes's standards, but as long as it works, I'll be happy. After i cleaned up, I went and filled up the front tank. I could have driven for another day, but I want to pull the front filler neck tomorrow and get the elbow JB Welded into it and give it plenty of time to cure before putting it back.
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I have seen some other posts in the past where they used threaded rod to make up the difference on the Bronco tanks. The fill hose seems to be the biggest problem since the swage on the Bronco hose is larger and closer to the frame.
IDIBRONCO
IDIBRONCO
That would have been a good idea if I had thought about it and if I had some all thread. My idea was a little different. I decided to extend the straps themselves. I took them into work with me this morning and I cut them apart and extended the straps themselves. I used what I thought was some 1" wide by 1/8" thick flat metal, but it turned out to be 3/16" thick instead. That explained why they are stiffer than I thought they would be. Oh well. Some of these welds look pretty good while others don't. It's not easy to weld 3/16" metal to 1/16" (or less) without burning through. Most of the metal that I weld is 1/8" and I didn't change the settings on my welder. I did burn a little bit along the very edges, but that's to be expected when doing this. After welding, I buffed the welded areas with a nylon wheel on a drill and took them home to paint. A couple of coats of Rustoleum flat black and they don't look completely terrible for literally 10 minutes worth of fab work. Unfortunately, this is all I managed to get done today. It was hot and very humid. My arms felt weak before I went to lunch. After I got home from work, I laid down on my couch and took a nap for 1 1/2 hours. Work time ruined. I guess there's always tomorrow.
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