Commercial fuel tanks.

[InimiaD]

Whilst on a run in my Woody yesterday I had a near disaster when the fuel tank decided it didn't want to stay attached to the bodywork.
All 6 nylon captive fittings had pulled out of their respective holes which left the fuel tank holding on for dear life.
Only the filler neck and a bespoke exhaust hanger bracket was holding it in place.
All the nylon captive fittings / screws are brand new which begs the question, why have they failed.?

Anyway, after some head scratching I have decided to adopt the belt and braces method of holding the tank in place by drilling through the original 3 mounts for the tank on the rear subframe, rear crossmember, into the load space and using long bolts attached to a spreader plate etc etc.
Then I'll manipulate a steel bar to go underneath the tank front to rear, a "U" shaped bracket idea which again will be bolted through the shell.

Has anyone experienced this sort thing before, or am I just unlucky.?

[Spider]

Thank goodness for the filler neck!

I have found some of the Nylon Fittings supplied these days seem to be metric, though imperial ones are still available.

None the less, straps are far less likely to fail.

[Andrew1967]

Have to say that when I did a pick up three years ago, the nylon fixings that went into the valance didn't inspire a lot of confidence either.

The mounts on the crossmember on that pick up and my current '75 pick up are just self tappers into the crossmember that has a welded captive female plate (for want of a better description) with no nylon fixings.

[850man]

I have only ever cleaned up the original nylon fittings and re used them, and have never had a problem.
It sounds like the new ones you have used are typical of most of the reproduction parts available these days, not up to scratch.

[woodypup59]

I used steel strapping (from pallets) running under the tank to add extra support.

Use the no plate bracket screws.

[Richspec]

we did something much the same on my brothers clubby estate, the heritage tank didn't line up very well with the heritage valence fittings and it all seemed a bit iffy.. I'll see if I can find a picture.

[InimiaD]

The nylon fittings needed a bit of persuasion to fit into the respective holes when I built the shell up.
As some of you have alluded to, I suspect the replacement fittings are not up to scratch dimension wise or possibly material wise.
Hey ho, onwards and upwards.

[Richspec]

two of these attacked to the subframe at one end and the number plate support at the other, just in case!

[Cheeser]

This reminds me of a commercial tank problem that I had in the 1970s!
I had a Morris 1000 pickup that was VERY rough, fitted with a tuned 1098 taken out to 1150, HS4, 12g295, 997 cooper cam. I was in the process of renovating an old rundown cottage, but worked fulltime in Wimborne which meant travelling through Cranborne, passing Steve Harris's garage on the way. One day on my way home the dynamo started making a terrible noise, even louder than all the rattles and clonks from the rest of the old pickup.I didn't have facilities to sort that evening,so decided to get a new dynamo in my lunch break the next day....there was a starting handle anyway!
So off to work the next morning with this terrible noise, through Cranborne up the hill a good half mile, then she stopped. I could hear the petrol pump ticking away,so looked under the bonnet...no obvious problem, looked around at the back and found that the petrol tank had completely gone!!
Friends turned up in their car and stopped to ask what the problem was......they hadn't seen the tank on their way from Cranborne....so jumped in their car and retraced route back to where they had joined my route....no sign of tank! Continued on my route and found the tank in the gutter opposite Steve Harris premises!
So the moral is, a gently driven A series can travel a very long way on the petrol in the fuel line and the SU float chamber AND don't get a friend, new to welding, to repair the supporting bar of a Minor pickup fuel tank!