47 Ford gas tank

B

bill h

Senior Member
how far does the gas line go into the gas tank. I have the sender out but i can,t see the gas line. The tank looks very clean but I wanted to check for rust on the gas line. Once the line goes in from the side it must then run down.i have run out of gas twice and I took out the sender and I had enough gas in the tank so I' m thinking there could be a problem with the line. I have an old rusted tank that I can see the line through the opening but that could have added any time. Thanks
 
bill h said:
how far does the gas line go into the gas tank. I have the sender out but i can,t see the gas line. The tank looks very clean but I wanted to check for rust on the gas line. Once the line goes in from the side it must then run down.i have run out of gas twice and I took out the sender and I had enough gas in the tank so I' m thinking there could be a problem with the line. I have an old rusted tank that I can see the line through the opening but that could have added any time. Thanks
Click to expand...

I replaced my tank with a new reproduction.. the line inside the tank is fixed.. it's called the pickup tube.. I don't think there are any baffles in the old tanks, so depending on how you were driving, it can feel like it is running out of gas.. It happened to me once with my new tank.. but I was able to coax it to a filling station... :D
 
bill h said:
how far does the gas line go into the gas tank. I have the sender out but i can,t see the gas line. The tank looks very clean but I wanted to check for rust on the gas line. Once the line goes in from the side it must then run down.i have run out of gas twice and I took out the sender and I had enough gas in the tank so I' m thinking there could be a problem with the line. I have an old rusted tank that I can see the line through the opening but that could have added any time. Thanks
Click to expand...

You may have something floating around inside the tank that blocks the pickup tube off and on. You may get by with just cleaning the tank.
 
The pick up tube goes down to the bottom of the tank and is soldered there. Any crap floating around on the bottom of the tank will be sucked up by it.
 
But can you see the line from the fuel sender hole or is it just on the left side. I have an old tank that I can see the line through the hole but my good tank I can see no line. Thanks
 
The inner pick up tube has only a small amount of height above the bottom of the tank on most old Ford & Mercury cars. You should be able to see it through either the sender bung or the filler port. If the pick up tube is cracked or missing then it can cause the problem you describe. You could test it with an electric pump connected to the tank feed port and see it it will draw it all the way down. If it won't then there is something wrong with the tube.
 
If the car sat for a long time, it is likely the pickup tube rusted or rotted, reducing the length. I had the same problem with my '47, which sat in a junkyard at one time. I replaced the tank with a plastic one because the original tank had pinhole rust on the top, as do most very old original tanks, and a collection of debris on the bottom. Original tanks had an internal coating called "tern" which was sort of like solder. When it failed, moisture attacked the exposed places, resulting in rust.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top