I woke up this morning to find that the left support strap on the gas tank was laying on the ground, completely rusted off from where it attached to behind the bumper. What should i do, is it safe to drive, the tank looks pretty steady and there is no rust on the other strap. i was thinking to try to replace it with one from a junker. Damn always new problems. any ideas guys, thanks.

 

make a new one

I made one outta scrap sheetmetal... works great. Just use like 20 guage, and bend a 90 degree in both ends and drill or punch the correct size hole in it for the bolt.

Or get one from the junker's

 

It's very dangerous to drive with only one strap. Consider gas weighs about 8lbs/gallon, it doesn't take much to put a heavy load on the one strap. Also, the one strap is now supporting twice the weight is was designed to.

You can get a generic gas tanc strap kit at the parts store. It is just metal strapping with a bunch of pre-drilled holes. It should be real cheap, and worth the money considering the aggrevation in removing one off a junker, if you can find one. Lots of states require gas tanks be removed/drained from the junkers in the yard when they arrive, for enviromental resons.

 

Geeeez what does the rest errr..... I mean rust of your car look like?

 

no the body is perfect, its just theres a bit of underbody rust, not much wheel well rust either. thanks alot guys

i'll try making my own

 

Good deal. It's really not hard to make one, if you have the stock metal to work with. I suggest putting a jack under the tank to support it, (with a block of wood to protect it from the jack), then remove the good strap, to use as a model. Drill the holes first, if you can, it'll be easier to hold the steel under the press in the correct locations. And don't worry too much about bending it, steel is nice and pliable really, all you need is a vice, an anvil, and a couple of good hammers. (And if you don't have an anvil, then a bench, or a concrete floor, with some creative blocking, will serve just fine.) I've fabricated quite a bit of metalwork for my FB over the years...

 

i just hope my tank doesn't fall out on the freeway tommorrow on the trip to work, i'll see if i can make a new one tommorrow night

 

Just don't fill the car up much, and for the time being, strap a bungee cord under it, just as a temporary fix... just in case