Gas Tank Removal

[LL Cool Mike 76]

76 GMC Sierra, do i need to remove the bed to drop the gas tanks?

 

[Frankenchevy]

76 GMC Sierra, do i need to remove the bed to drop the gas tanks?

No. There are two brackets holding each tank. The brackets have four bolts each through the frame. There’s a wire for your sender and two to three rubber lines connected to the sender.

 

[Camatruder]

My '91 square has a shielding plate under the tank that is 4 x bolted to the frame. The straps that hold the tank are only bolted at the the rear and have hooks on the front.
If you have a tow bar (sorry don't know the english word), you'll have to remove that first.

 

[Charlie]

 

[Obwonkonobe]

On a 76 no, if your scared it’s easy, I swapped in dual tanks without removing the bed, your back will just hate you for a week

 

[Lowered87]

I used 2 wheeled floor jacks. Raise the jacks until they are just touching each tank bracket. Remove the filler hose and vent line from the tank. Remove each set of four bolts from each bracket. Slowly lower the tank until you can access the sending unit. Unplug the 2 wires and one to three hoses depending how many outlets your sender has. Sometimes there is a ground wire from tank to frame. I did not have this wire. I just had a ground wire from the sending unit to the frame. Slowly let the tank down with the floor jacks. A smart person would empty the fuel tank before doing this but I dropped my tank when it was 3/4 full and had no problems. My truck did not have skid plates but from the parts manual You may or may not have to remove some of them to remove the tank. On a side note, my truck is lowered so the floor jacks worked well. If you have a crazy lift kit then find someway to support the tank and lower it slowly. Or just pull a He-man maneuver and lay under the tank to become a human floor jack.

 

[MikeB]

Wow! I'm impressed with you guys. I removed my bed because I had other projects to do, and wanted to have top access. But I don't see how in the world I could have dropped the tank enough to remove the fuel hose clamps and sender wire, much less reinstall them. Being a dumba$$, I had 7-8 gallons of gas left, so pumped most of it out before dropping the tank.

 

[Lowered87]

As I was replacing all of my fuel lines, I had them disconnected on the other end so the tank could be lowered enough to disconnect at the sender. Most of the lines on my truck were leftovers and not correct for this year so disconnecting everything definitely allowed me the room. Factory installation would be too short to lower prior to disconnecting a line closer to the selector valve. My favorite yet more expensive removal technique is cordless hackzall. It will remove lines, wiring, frame rail, arm, etc. very rapidly but then you are purchasing new.

 

[Zoomalot]

Just replaced mine with single Bullet Type inside box.
Easy to drop when using floorjacks and patience and a BIG hammer!!!

 

[peats]

i'm with MikeB, i don't know how you can do it correctly without removing the bed.

 

[mavtricks71]

76 GMC Sierra, do i need to remove the bed to drop the gas tanks?

I REMOVED MY BED BECAUSE I WANTED TO THE JOB RIGHT AND MAKE THE FUEL LINES THE CORRECT LENGTH AS THE ORIGINALS.....ITS VERY HARD TO DO WITHOUT BED OFF....ITS ONLY 6 BOLTS TO REMOVE THE BED.

 

[Snoots]

Geez. We ain't deaf.

 

[Camar068]

I used 2 wheeled floor jacks. Raise the jacks until they are just touching each tank bracket. Remove the filler hose and vent line from the tank. Remove each set of four bolts from each bracket. Slowly lower the tank until you can access the sending unit. Unplug the 2 wires and one to three hoses depending how many outlets your sender has. Sometimes there is a ground wire from tank to frame. I did not have this wire. I just had a ground wire from the sending unit to the frame. Slowly let the tank down with the floor jacks. A smart person would empty the fuel tank before doing this but I dropped my tank when it was 3/4 full and had no problems. My truck did not have skid plates but from the parts manual You may or may not have to remove some of them to remove the tank. On a side note, my truck is lowered so the floor jacks worked well. If you have a crazy lift kit then find someway to support the tank and lower it slowly. Or just pull a He-man maneuver and lay under the tank to become a human floor jack.

Ditto. If you don't have a floor jack, get one. Harbor Freight has them cheap.

https://www.harborfreight.com/15-ton-aluminum-racing-floor-jack-with-rapid-pump-62160.html

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[legopnuematic]

Both on my 76 (dual tanks) and on my 79 (single tank) I have dropped all of the tanks, on the 76 the bed was on, the 79 it was off. Both trucks I disconnected the fuel lines from the hardline running on the frame rail, take the ground wire off and the guide for the hoses, take the 8 bolts out and set the tank down, disconnect the sender line and done. Taking the bed off really doesn't give an advantage IMO since half of the tank is under the cab and the bolts are inside the frame and not on top of it. Also taking the bed off on most trucks with some rust means cutting the bolts, buying new bolts, messing with the tail light harness, devising a way to lift the bed, somewhere to put it, putting it back on. Reminds me of a story where a guy pulled the transmission from his car to be rebuilt and brings it into the shop with the crankshaft still attached to the flexplate/torque converter. No reason to do more work than needed.

 

[veasey]

10 fo