Thoughts,amp,Tips,Fuel,Tank,Sa car Thoughts & Tips on Fuel Tank Safety

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The problem; at onetime, not so long ago, pulling a fuel tank was not that common a job,then they started putting the fuel pump in the tank. You know the rest;I don't think it would be that uncommon for a three-man shop to pullthree tanks a week. Three a week, 156 a year, 1000 every 6.4 years,suddenly one chance in a thousand is not so comforting. Gasoline does not burn, the vapors do, what better way to stir up somevapors then wrestle a fully loaded tank out, a little splish, a littlesplash, now the gun is cocked and loaded, all we need is a spark. Wehad a shop in town that nearly burned down several years ago, they werepulling a tank on one of those T-Birds that has the tank straddling thedriveshaft, some fuel sloshed out, not sure what ignited the fumes,perhaps a light switch, maybe a pilot light. They were lucky, they gota big fireball, and every one ran out the door, the last fellow shutthe door and the flames went out due to lack of oxygen. I've heard ofreports that three shops burnt down in the Indianapolis area, my friendreports four within twenty miles of his front door, another associatereports losing a neighboring shop this past winter. I think our fearsare justified. Risk factors; some things that I believe make this job much moredangerous then it needs to be. Working with a full fuel tank, nothaving a good gas caddy to transfer fuel with, not having a hoist, nothaving a good jack with a adaptor designed to safely support the tankwhile removing it, using a trouble light with a incandescent bulb, ifyour still using one of these trouble lights just throw it away, and ofcourse someone in the next bay that is involved in what he is doing andnot what you are doing. How about that full tank? Let's empty it before we pull it, feeldealing with a empty tank will do much to improve our odds. Trouble ishow do you empty it? We always used to do the best we could, which wasnot very good. About 8 years ago we got a nice gas caddy, seems thiswas about the same time they started to add roll over valves in thefill neck, since then we had pretty much given up on getting a suctiontube down the fill neck. GM DID supply detailed information on everymodel to drain the tank; we just had not bothered to look for it. Onsome vehicles you pull a vent tube and run the suction tube down thatway, others you pull a evaporative emissions grommet, quite a few callyou to slip the evacuation hose down the fill tube, I tried that on a95 Cavalier in the shop and to my surprise the hose dropped right in.Fords give detailed info and even Chrysler does a pretty good job ofgiving the information to drain the tank. Where do we get this information? Yup, that is a problem isn't it? Notmany of us can afford the factory information on every vehicle we workon. We have Mitchell here in our shop and they often do not pass theinformation along, just sort of ends up on the cutting room floor, goodnews is they have committed to including it on all makes starting withthe fourth quarter. I have been trying out All-Data the past coupleweeks, looks like they do a good job of including the factoryinformation on tank draining and removal. A pat on the back for thoseboys, and bravo to Mitchell for committing to add it fourth quarter. Iwould love to see a company put out a book dealing with fuel pumps,fuel tanks, and nothing else, sort of patterned on those Auto-Datatiming belt books that are so handy, this would put the informationwithin easy reach of everyone. The important point I want to make is inmost cases the information is out there, for to long we didn't look forit, we just pulled the tank full or used dangerous methods to empty it.If you are going to pull a tank, LOOK FOR THE INFORMATION! We have beenand in most cases it makes the job much safer and easier. Is all the factory information good? I don't think so, I looked throughsome different makes in All-Data, 2001 Subaru Imprezza 2.5, pull therear seat, pull the sender and then they have a picture of one of thoselittle plastic siphons with the squeeze bulb like you get with keroseneheaters to transfer the gasoline to what looks like a open five gallonbucket. Toyota seemed to drop the ball on some models, maybe Toyota'sproblem, maybe All-Data's. Lots of Chrysler's use a drain plug, I have concerns about drain plugs,drain plugs mean funnels, pretty good chance of spilling when using afunnel and even if you don't spill for sure we are going to stir upsome fumes when we drop it into the funnel. Wanna really get some excitement drop a full tank off the tranny jack.We did it here once. Let me tell a story a good friend told me. He wasputting a fuel pump in a S-10 Blazer, all was going good, the tank was on the transmissionjack and out from under the truck, he had the sender out and was readyto go back with the new, he needed a tool on the bench out of hisreach, the tank was perched on the little square base that's standardwith most trans. jacks, tanks pretty full and a little wobbly, hesteady's it with his hand and seems OK, he quickly let's go and headsto the bench for his tool, of course before he gets back the tank slipsoff. You know that sharp raised seam where they put the two tank half'stogether? It sliced right through his trouble light cord when it hitthe ground, fuel all over the place. My friend reports the next timethe tool man came he bought a adaptor for his transmission jackdesigned for working with fuel tanks, we bought a Sunex brand # 7704adaptor, about a 150.00 and really makes the job of pulling a tank mucheasier and safer, I like the straps they supply to lash the tank to theadaptor. Gasoline fumes go down? Gasoline is lighter thenwater right? Storm clouds float, why should gasoline clouds sink? Theimplications of this are pretty big. I have always heard that naturalgas is much safer then propane because natural gas rises while propanesinks, this means that natural gas will tend to rise and get out of thearea, propane sinks and collects in low spots, ditches, basements andwaiting for a spark to blow it. If gasoline fumes sink that means ifyou have open alignment pit or other low spot in your shop it could bereal trouble, the fumes could be waiting for you long after you thinkthe danger is over. The thought of draining fuel out of a tank into anopen container while the car is over a open pit are really scary. Ibelieve the person that made this statement is correct, the other daywe were dropping a tank out of a Dodge van, big tank, pretty muchstraight down, only had about five gallons of fuel in it, I was helpingAlan with it and grabbed the side with the fill tube opening, openingwas about half way down the tank, I covered the fill tube opening withthe palm of my hand to prevent any sloshing of fuel, as we juggled thetank a little I could feel fuel splash against my palm. With the tankresting on the jack Alan grabbed the Gas Caddy to pump out the rest ofthe fuel, he called me over to see what he saw. You know how you cansometimes see fuel vapors, as you stood behind the tank and looked atthe area by the fill opening we could see the fumes we had stirred upleaving the tank, oddly they came out the opening and dropped straightdown, looked just like you were pouring cream out of it. I have neverseen fumes as visible as these were. Wouldn't it be neat if we hadspecial glasses we could put on that would turn all the areas withcombustible mixtures red? I'll bet that would be enlightening. I had a farmer friend get a pretty good burning several years ago. Hehad a pile of wood to burn, he doused the pile with gasoline and thenstood clear back and threw a gasoline soaked corn cob to start thefire, a big woof and the flames came all the way back and got him,luckily for him once the fumes burnt off he was in the clear, he lostsome hair and was red and sore for a while. He had done the same thingmany times before, this time though he said there was a low area, sortof a low ditch leading away from the burn pile, he was standing in thislow spot when he threw the cob, the fumes from the pile must ofcollected and traveled down the low area. It's important to be aware ofthis tendency of gasoline fumes to sink and collect in low spots. What is a fuel evacuation port? It would consist of a tube entering thetop of the tank and going to the bottom, the end outside the tank wouldbe equipped with a universal coupler that we could attach our gas caddyto. Sound familiar? Chrysler used them for several years. We deserve itguys, all there is to it. For the consumer, Air Bags, ABS, and on and on it goes. I don't have aproblem with safety for the consumer, but what do we get? We get apicture of a siphon going into an open five-gallon bucket? To Summarize: 1. If you do not have a good gas caddy get one, and use the groundstrap supplied with it. Use the tie down straps to secure the tank tothe adaptor. 2. If you don't have an adaptor for your transmission jack get one, Sunex #7704, there are others also. 3. Look for the information to properly drain the tank before working on it. In most cases it's out there. 4. Have a fire extinguisher at the ready; notify the other techs of what you are up to. 5. Be aware of the dangers of fumes, don't rile up the gas anymore then you have to. Avoid spilling. 6. Think about how neat it would be to have a fuel evacuation port standard on every new car built. Article Tags: Fuel Tank, Several Years, Fill Tube, Pretty Good, Factory Information, Most Cases, Transmission Jack, Gasoline Fumes