[DeTomaso] FUEL TANK

[JDeRyke at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/18/09 8:54:05 PM, boyd411 at gmail.com writes:


> Does the fuel tank on a 1973 L have a drain plug in the bottom?The 
> service manual says "Drain tank" before removal but it doesn't say how. Is there 
> a plug or do you just siphon out the gas?
> 

You do in fact need to remove a plug in the bottom, which is easily 
accessible from under the car. The hitch is. many of those steel plugs have not 
been disturbed since the early '70s, so they are VERY tight or corroded in 
place. Complicating the fact of an over-tight plug is, the gas tank is made of 
extremely thin steel. Putting a giant wrench on the plug and having "Bruno" 
lean on it often causes the whole tank bottom to distort into wrinkles. Thats 
the point I decided to try Larry Stock's method using an air-powred lug 
wrench, set on 'low'. It took some minutes of air hammering at the plug before 
it came loose. Other people have drilled the plug out, re-tapping the tank 
hole to SAE 1/2" pipe from the metric tapered plug that was originally in 
there. Use teflon tape on the tank plug (either stock or pipe next time.-Good 
luck- J Deryke


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