Fuel system replacement and raising the body for filler neck installation. (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Threads
47
Messages
3,079
Location
Twin Ports of Superior, WI and Duluth, MN
I have a leak in my filler neck which I just spent the morning repairing by doing my best to sand the whole pipe down and fill with JB Weld for fuel tanks and then coating with POR 15. I think this will hold for a bit but I would like to replace my whole system with a rust free one through @arcteryx aka Jason from Crusier Yard. He has all the stuff and his prices are fair. He even gave me some advice about how to raise the body to slip the fuel filler pipe in.

All of my stuff is rustier than I am comfortable with considering how much I have already spent on "restoring" my truck and the fact that Mr. T is discontinuing these parts(the filler neck pipe is already a goner). My skid plate is moth eaten and it will take as much bar chain oil as I will feed it and it soaks it up. It's f-ed. I am not sure the condition of the gas tank, but I figure as long as I am going this far why not just do it all?

I can't tell by reading the FSM how the body is attached to the frame. I see the schematic for the body mount points, but I am not sure I understand how they work. It looks like two nuts that uses the lower one to tighten against the snug upper one, but again, I have some rust under there and I am not at all excited about getting something botched or snapping anything off. Are there threaded hard points above these or is there a bolt up there that needs to be held steady? What happens if I snap something off?

Do I need to take all the inner fender pieces and the rear mudflap assembly off too? I gues the whole filler pipe slips in there somehow, but it seems like it will take some wiggling, even if I do raise the body. How high do I need to raise the body?

Any insight and tips or tricks to get this project underway would be appreciated. Also, would you get a new fuel pump or buy a used one, provided it is rust free?
 
Did this last weekend.. I cut the neck and did it that way. it does not sit as flush inside the gas door..we could have gotten it better but it only took my mechanic friend and i about 2hrs of real work. did the gas tank and all the parts that go with it. replaced with his old tank which was in much better condition.
I reused the old rubber from the tank to rejoin the parts and as far as i can tell..its not going anywhere. i still need to do a full fill up but im not worried about it at all
 
Did this last weekend.. I cut the neck and did it that way. it does not sit as flush inside the gas door..we could have gotten it better but it only took my mechanic friend and i about 2hrs of real work. did the gas tank and all the parts that go with it. replaced with his old tank which was in much better condition.
I reused the old rubber from the tank to rejoin the parts and as far as i can tell..its not going anywhere. i still need to do a full fill up but im not worried about it at all
Did you weld the pipe?
 
I reused the old rubber from the tank (buy new if you want the rubber to be more forgiving) to rejoin the parts and as far as i can tell..its not going anywhere. i still need to do a full fill up but im not worried about it at all
 
I reused the old rubber from the tank (buy new if you want the rubber to be more forgiving) to rejoin the parts and as far as i can tell..its not going anywhere. i still need to do a full fill up but im not worried about it at all
Thanks for the insight. It's good to know that I can have a plan B if my initial idea doesn't work.
 
I did this with a 97 LX ... there is a point where salt collects where the filler pipe crosses the frame ... very bad design - it rusts through and leaks (cannot be repaired with POR -- I tried that!)... I started with a new filler pipe and sectioned it (in two) and connected the sections with a hose when they were in position. I constructed a brace with a piece of flat bar aluminium to re-secure the cap end and it holds tight and looks like factory. I found a couple of body 'tabs' where I could secure the Al bar with bolts and then used stainless clamps to connect the flat bar to the side of the neck ... I think I wrote a step by step on this forum several years ago when I did it... Now I aparently have an upper gas tank leak in the 'traditional' place when tank is full. Getting a little annoying dealing with fuel leaks ... Toyota needs a very hard slap on the side of the head for this BS .... I have an 1981 BMW 633csi .... it doesnt leak fuel! A well conceived, designed and robust fuel system is 'table stakes' in my opinion on any vehicle ... and apparently Toyota left this part of the series 80 design (and 'specing') to a moron.
 
I need to replace mine too. I’m dealing with rust and have the entire rear axle, suspension and gas tank out. The body mount bolts need to be replaced as well. While I have them out (assuming the rust doesn’t cause me too much pain) I’m wondering if I can the old one out and new one in, in one piece.

How much does the body have to be lifted to get the new pipe in as one piece? Do you have to take all the mount bolts out or can you loosen most and just raise the rear part of the body up just enough to slide it on? And most importantly, is this possible without a lift?

Ah, getting a lift can’t come soon enough.
 
I need to replace mine too. I’m dealing with rust and have the entire rear axle, suspension and gas tank out. The body mount bolts need to be replaced as well. While I have them out (assuming the rust doesn’t cause me too much pain) I’m wondering if I can the old one out and new one in, in one piece.

How much does the body have to be lifted to get the new pipe in as one piece? Do you have to take all the mount bolts out or can you loosen most and just raise the rear part of the body up just enough to slide it on? And most importantly, is this possible without a lift?

Ah, getting a lift can’t come soon enough.
I have heard that you can get it out and in, in one piece if you loosen the rear two sets of body mounts and then raise the body up a few inches. I haven't done mine yet as it's getting too close to winter and I have a bunch of other stuff that I need to get done first and my JB Weld is holding well. My thought was to use a couple of bottle jacks and then some sort of 2 X 4 contraption to lift the body off the frame. I am not sure I would even want to try this on a lift, I would feel better with the frame/tires on the ground rather than dangling off a lift.

Let us know what you end up doing.
 
I think I'll have to give this a try. Right now the entire rear part of my LC is on big 6 ton jack stands since everything underneath is out. I' not sure how safe it would be to try to lift the body with it on the stands. But I'm not sure what interference having the suspension back on will cause. Dang salt!!!

Well, I'll see what I can come up with over the next few weeks and keep you posted. Let me know if you work on yours.

BTW - The lift is to raise the body off the frame while the frame is sitting on the ground. ;)
 
I think I'll have to give this a try. Right now the entire rear part of my LC is on big 6 ton jack stands since everything underneath is out. I' not sure how safe it would be to try to lift the body with it on the stands. But I'm not sure what interference having the suspension back on will cause. Dang salt!!!

Well, I'll see what I can come up with over the next few weeks and keep you posted. Let me know if you work on yours.

BTW - The lift is to raise the body off the frame while the frame is sitting on the ground. ;)

My biggest concern is that I am going to lift it up but then not be able to get the holes to line back up again or that I am going to kink the body somehow if I don't loosen all of the body mounts. Really not sure how likely either of those scenarios are, but I think it's safe to say that Toyota didn't plan on people changing these parts out regularly.

I think if it's securely on the jack stands that should be safe. Your idea of using the lift makes more sense now :)

Let me know what you come up with. It seems like you are at logical place to give it a whirl. Do you have the filler neck already? I am going to POR15 mine and then top coat with some industrial paint in hopes that I never have this problem again.
 
POR is what I am using, top coated by Extreme Chassis Black from Eastwood. I've used the Chassis Black and Extreme Chassis Black on another car (not over POR as they were fresh, clean parts) with good results. As with any painting, prep is the key. After cleaning you have to put the phosphoric acid on the part first which is a pain but does seem to give a good surface to bond to. Getting to the top side of the frame isn't fun but you really have to make sure it is completely covered with no open spots or it won't be sealed and will just start rusting again. The proper way is body off of course, but that takes me back to my lift comment. :) (Next house - looking for a big garage or land to build one and then will worry about the size of the house.) And do NOT get any of the POR on your skin. It doesn't come off and you pretty much have to let it wear off - don't ask me how I know.

But I digress from the OT.

Since the axle is off I'm going to hook a couple of chains to it and attach to the rear frame cross member just to make sure there is plenty of weight to keep the frame from lifting up. I'll loosen or cut off all the body bolts and come up with some contraption to lift the body. I'm going to have to be creative and come up with a way to effectively and safely lift the body as the point to raise from is 37" off the ground. Hopefully this will give me just enough wiggle room to get the old pipe out, new one in. And I hear you on lining things up. I'll have to come up with something to keep things lined up.

As for tweaking the body, I'm going to assume it will take a lot more than a couple of body jacks to do that. Let's hope I'm not wrong but I'll watch carefully regardless.

I don't have the pipe yet. I'm actually sitting here now looking up parts to put together an order. I shudder to think of the cost. This is adding up quickly. I hadn't thought about using POR on it as a new, freshly powder coated thing. The original has lasted 20 years so I'm not sure I'm going to mess with it. But I'll figure that one when I get to that point.

Ah, how boring this all would be if it was simple to do. Challenge breeds creativity although much cussing occurs and many a knuckles are busted in the process. And as many have said - curse you Toyota for such a terrible design.
 
POR is what I am using, top coated by Extreme Chassis Black from Eastwood. I've used the Chassis Black and Extreme Chassis Black on another car (not over POR as they were fresh, clean parts) with good results. As with any painting, prep is the key. After cleaning you have to put the phosphoric acid on the part first which is a pain but does seem to give a good surface to bond to. Getting to the top side of the frame isn't fun but you really have to make sure it is completely covered with no open spots or it won't be sealed and will just start rusting again. The proper way is body off of course, but that takes me back to my lift comment. :) (Next house - looking for a big garage or land to build one and then will worry about the size of the house.) And do NOT get any of the POR on your skin. It doesn't come off and you pretty much have to let it wear off - don't ask me how I know.

But I digress from the OT.

Since the axle is off I'm going to hook a couple of chains to it and attach to the rear frame cross member just to make sure there is plenty of weight to keep the frame from lifting up. I'll loosen or cut off all the body bolts and come up with some contraption to lift the body. I'm going to have to be creative and come up with a way to effectively and safely lift the body as the point to raise from is 37" off the ground. Hopefully this will give me just enough wiggle room to get the old pipe out, new one in. And I hear you on lining things up. I'll have to come up with something to keep things lined up.

As for tweaking the body, I'm going to assume it will take a lot more than a couple of body jacks to do that. Let's hope I'm not wrong but I'll watch carefully regardless.

I don't have the pipe yet. I'm actually sitting here now looking up parts to put together an order. I shudder to think of the cost. This is adding up quickly. I hadn't thought about using POR on it as a new, freshly powder coated thing. The original has lasted 20 years so I'm not sure I'm going to mess with it. But I'll figure that one when I get to that point.

Ah, how boring this all would be if it was simple to do. Challenge breeds creativity although much cussing occurs and many a knuckles are busted in the process. And as many have said - curse you Toyota for such a terrible design.


That all sounds like a fine plan. I have used POR15 quite a bit and I agree that prep is the key and keeping it off your skin is important.

Just as an FYI, the filler neck is no longer available through Toyota. I bought mine on eBay from a guy in my area and it was remarkably clean for a upper midwest part. I am sure the truck was originally from somewhere else.

I bought a used gas tank and fuel pump assembly from a mud member along with his rust free straps and I bought a new skid plate from the same guy I bought the filler neck from. I think my total for everything including shipping was around $350.


I coated the whole skid plate with the POR15 and then top coated with Rustoleum, but I am thinking I might use the stuff you are using on everything. A few more layers of paint can't hurt.

Thanks again for sharing what you are doing here, this is one of the trickier projects that I have dealt with on this truck and any ideas of what worked or didn't work will surely help me and anyone else that wants to do this project out.
 
Why not just cut it and remove, then cut the new one and use a Gates 23964 filler tube hose with a couple of clamps on each end to fill in the gap? That's basically what I did when I installed my dual filler neck for the subtank. Seems easier than lifting the body off the frame, but maybe you're looking for an OEM solution?
 
Why not just cut it and remove, then cut the new one and use a Gates 23964 filler tube hose with a couple of clamps on each end to fill in the gap? That's basically what I did when I installed my dual filler neck for the subtank. Seems easier than lifting the body off the frame, but maybe you're looking for an OEM solution?

I may end up doing that, but if I can wiggle the whole thing in, I would rather do that because I see the cut and the hose connection as another place that salty water can get trapped and cause the same problem again. I also think the gas contributes to the demise of these things, not sure why that is though.

The filler necks are going to be a tough find in a few years since it is NLA. If it turns into a debacle to get the whole thing in, I will have to cut it.
 
Mine's sitting in a garage in CA (just what I cut out for the dual filler). It should be around for a while. Let me know if you ever need it and it's yours.
 
I used marine fuel hose and cut out the rusty bits of the filler neck. No need to lift the body, but the opening is hard to get in the right spot.
 
I may end up doing that, but if I can wiggle the whole thing in, I would rather do that because I see the cut and the hose connection as another place that salty water can get trapped and cause the same problem again. I also think the gas contributes to the demise of these things, not sure why that is though.

The filler necks are going to be a tough find in a few years since it is NLA. If it turns into a debacle to get the whole thing in, I will have to cut it.

Dang it. (and a few other non-PG words) I didn't realize it was NLA. That makes this whole thing even tougher. I agree on not wanting to cut it and have other places things can get lodged in. But I'll keep that as a last resort.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom