Hey Guys,

Aside from my car having gone backwards through a fence at some point in its life (which I believe is a good thing!) it's in pretty good shape.

One thing that the fence did was put a massive dent the size of a medicine ball into the bottom rear of the gas tank. It makes my gas gauge inaccurate and I imagine seriously reduces the range of the vehicle.

I know that these GSL-SE tanks are rare and sought after because of their in-tank pump or so I've heard, so my question is: Is there an access port for the fuel pump like on an FD or do I have to drop the tank?

Regardless of how to get to the pump, once I've got it out, I'd like to know if the hole in the top of the tank for the pump is large enough to get a piece of wood inside so that I can attempt to punch out the dent.

If not it sounds like I'll have to take the tank somewhere and have it professionally repaired.

Thanks guys.

 

I wish we had intake pumps. I have an 85 SE and dropping the tank was the first thing I did to it because it had been sitting for awhile. Mazda didn't switch to in-tank pumps until 86, which makes finding a pick-up tube filter a pain for our cars because it is no longer produced.

If the dent is near the sending unit, you should be able to drop the tank, not a hard job really, pull the sending unit out and get something in there to try to straighten it out. Its been awhile since I have had the tank out though, and I don't think that the sending unit is a very big hole. The pickup tube offers a larger hole, but the tank has baffles in it so I don't know if you will be able to reach where the dent is through it.

When you drop the tank, just make sure its near empty.

 

I doubt the dent is causing the sender to be inaccurate. Thats usually caused by a poor ground
on the sender. Cleaning and reattaching the sender sometimes fixes this otherwise you need to
hop a wire from the sender core plate to the tank via one of the screws holding the sender in.
Its easy to do and fixed the problem.

That dent is probably only robbing you of about 1/2 to 1 gallon of capacity. The location makes it
pretty much impossible to get anything over there to pop it out due to baffles (I think). I know
my SA tank had baffles that would interfere. A dent puller might work but then you have a
hole to deal with.

 

Thanks for the replies guys.

Yeah, it was just word of mouth from the PO, I haven't even really looked at it yet, but I'm not too sure about your estimation on volumetric loss. It is a substantial dent, and I filled the car up to until it was coming out the fill tube the last time I gassed up.

There was a spirited drive up/down a twisty road and a spirited drive up part of Mt. Baker Highway the other day, so maybe that's why, but I'm only at indicated 175 miles right now and the gauge indicates just at 1/4 tank.

I don't look forward to finding out my gas mileage.... lol

 

Oh, and to clarify, my gauge works perfectly mechanically speaking, but seeing as there is a very large dent in my tank, it turns the tank into a shelved tank, meaning the float descends at normal speed at full to 3/4 and partially to 1/2 tank, but after that, since the volume of the tank is less near the bottom, the gas gauge accelerates its decline into SHOW ME THE MONEY territory.

 

Wow! Must be a huge dent. I'd like to see it.

When I drive down to Atl, I go about 220+ miles at approximately 23 mpg and my tank is near
1/4 when I get there. Means I have about 3 gallons left. So your mileage may be off but if your
doing mountains runs I'm not surprised.

 

Not really sought after. There's still new old stock ones available. Atkins and mazdatrix both. But $500

 

 

That won't mess up the gas gauge. The float assembly is located just in front of the filler hose on the drivers side. Also your fuel pump is located on the drivers side just in front of the fuel filter on the inside part of the frame rail. There is a small skid plate protector the protects it. 3 bolts hold the skidplate in place. Your pick up is located on the top of the tank in the center there are 3 lines (one feed, one return, and one EVAP) are connected to it. If you remove the driver's side rear tire you will see a plastic panel, removing this will expose the electrical connector for the sending unit.

 

Mazda USA has 1 currently FA66-42-110A.

 

They got 33 done lenses too at 30 bucks each! Wonder what this prize costs?