Draining fuel tank

[Leinie]

I need to replace the fuel pump in my 97 burb, and the manual says to drain the tank.
How does one accomplish this ?

What do ya do with 30 gallons of gas ?

Can this be done without draining ?

What is the reason for the pump being is the tank ?- right now, I just want to kick a GM engineer in the nuts.

[Shane]

think you're upset now ... just wait till you find out the price of the fuel pump ...

[cdowns]

i have clear plastic hose that i siphon gas with. i put it in gas cans to save it

[Indian113]

If you can find a vaccum pump you can suck almost all of the fuel out and put it in another vehicle.

[Stocker]

Originally Posted by Leinie

What is the reason for the pump being is the tank ?

I believe most (if not all) newer vehicles have the pump in the tank. My guess is fuel injection requires higher fuel pressure, which requires a more powerful pump, which creates more heat, which can be cooled by immersing it in gasoline..... which also explains why pumps fail more frequently if you run the tank dry often enough before filling up.

[Leinie]

The pump price isn't so bad- $140 for the pump and a new strainer.

I'm gonna try without draining it. If I tow it to work I can put a forklift under it to hold the weight.

[Sillyoldman]

Park it over a storm drain after dark....JK'ng! I'd drain that bad boy. I dropped the saddle tank out of my '71 with fuel in it. I still had to drain it.

[piecesparts]

You can pump the gas into buckets or another car to make use of the gas. Then drop the tank . My guess is that if you have 30 gallons of gas in the tank, you have not figured the true weight that you will be dealing with---gasoline has a weight of 6.216 pounds per gallon, so you have approximately 180 pounds plus your tank's weight.

You can use a syphon pump or even ever so crudely suck a a syphon with a hose---like a Kansas credit card, so to speak. Just don't swallow.

[Gene]

Jack it up and put a brick on the gas pedal

[piecesparts]

Originally Posted by Gene

Jack it up and put a brick on the gas pedal

with the fuel pump not working, that might work---LOL

[fastwillie 696969]

cut a hole above the fuel pump J/K i would drain it out heavy tank why fight it

[Jerry Jones]

Originally Posted by fastwillie 696969

cut a hole above the fuel pump J/K

That is too funny, I was thinking the same thing.

[Josh]

Originally Posted by Leinie

The pump price isn't so bad- $140 for the pump and a new strainer.

I'm gonna try without draining it. If I tow it to work I can put a forklift under it to hold the weight.

I would probably get a new sender also, more times than not when the pump goes out is burns up the wires for the sender also. I always try to drain as much as I can out cause they get heavy and it's hard to hold/move when the weight is sloshing around on ya.

[cableguy0]

You should definately get the sender as josh mentioned. Its also a bad idea to just walk into the local parts house and grab whatever junk they have on the shelf. The aftermarket pumps rarely last. Its not a job you want to do twice in a short period of time. I would get an ac delco pump. If you have to just order it from www.rockauto.com they will have a good price on it.

[Leinie]

Well, that was easy enough. Forklift comes in real handy. They sure don't give much flexible hose to allow space to work, but i managed. If I drained the tank, I could have tipped it to allow more space.

The pump is Delphi (OEM) $110, strainer $12, filter $10, relay $18 ,( But I took that back ). To cheap and to close to the holidays to have it done or spring for the sending unit.

I thought about cutting a hole for next time, but hopefully it's someone elses problem by then.

Thanks for the replies

[cableguy0]

Good deal. Smart use of available equipment too. Never done one with a forklift. Usually just use a tranny jack when on the lift and it makes the job fairly easy.Fuel pumps never fail with an empty tank. I think every pump I ever replaced was just after a fill up