my expierence replacing the gastank float unit

[dss56]

1997 Chevy Blazer 4x4 4dr

Today 10-05-05 i started around 9am and finished about 3pm. the only bad part i had was getting the rubber hoses off the filler and overflow at the tank. They were twice as hard when reinstaling took about an hour to try and get both short hoses ligned up with the filler tubes and then push the tank to the rear of the blazer to get the hoses on to the tubes. I had tank out and just replaced the float unit cost at dealer was 129$ the complete unit was 585$ from dealer. My comment is this job is not for the regular part time mechanic, i was going to put tank back because i could not get the small filler hose off but did struggle with success. You need at least 2 people to do this unless you have a lift, I did not did this in driveway. Don't think i would ever do this again will go to a gas station to see if they would do. Dealer wants about 900$ to do this job. This was my daughters car that she bought 3 weeks ago and the sleezebag who sold it never told us it did not work. Looked like a half tank needle was moving when you turned ign. on. Well 2 days later she ran out of gas. I was bull called the guy who is a parts manager for the Honda of Boston and he would not help. Bought car on Sat and called him monday with the problem and he basically said screw you its used what do you want. Well he will have his day coming and it wont be a good one. I thought most all peps are fair but you don't do this to a 18 yr old girl and stick her with this gas guage problem.

Well just a few hints and venting
thanks

[DINO55]

dss56, Glad you got your daughter's blazer is back on the road, I have daughters too and I feel for you, as far as that sleezebag, I hope a rice burnner engine falls on his foot and you happen to be standing there while he's begging you to help him, you know what to do.

[mike2004tct]

Because I had to drop mine 3 times last spring, I found a way to get the tank out and back in in a two hour period. The easiest thing to do is make sure you have the rear-end jacked up high enough so that you can turn and rotate the tank 90 degrees with the filler neck attached right into it's final position.
The first time I took it out, I cut the filler tube hose and vent hose.
The next two times, I just removed the filler neck screws and push pin and dropped it like above.

It's a good feeling though when you actually get the job done, and you saved yourself major $ (I'd guess a 3-4 hour labor charge at a shop @ $80-100/hour)

[DINO55]

mike2004tct
I have not had the pleasure of dropping my fuel tank "yet" but when I do, I will take youre advice on jacking up the rearend high enough so I can turn and rotate the tank 90 degrees with the filler neck already attached. Thanks for the tip...

[jroy]

my gas gauge doesnt work either, says its way past full (about a tank and a half) and stays there, every 150-200 miles i fill up, only hastle is pushing the odometer reset button, and it saves me the work of fixing it

[OverBoardProject]

Mine is a first generation, and it only took me about 3 hours. And I didn't jack it up.

The tank was empty which made it a lot easier, and I had a new tank and new straps going in so I didn't care about the old parts.

I did have a little trouble with the filler neck. I had to unbolt it, and slide it past the frame into the hose.

If I was going to do it again I would replace all the short hoses conecting to the tank with longer ones.