I have a 1991 model…i just discovered the tank has been leaking for some time. It seems that there is a pinhole in the tank. The truck has a lot of rust on it. So could the tank be actually eaten up by rust? Recommend replace it with new tank or tank from the salvage yard? Anyone experienced removing/installing gas tanks? Any suggestions? Thanks!
Had the same problem on and 84 C-10. Lousy design…so much road sand and gravel accumulated on the tank hangers that it abraded though the finish and rusted through. Not to hard to do as i remember. Make sure you run the tank as dry as possible before you drop the tank.
If its just a pinhole there are patch kits available. My tank was paper thin in to many spots.
I would go with a replacement tank…any junkyard tank probably has too much rust already.
If other parts of the truck are rusty there’s no reason to think the gas tank won’t be rusty, too.
Unless you can inspect the junk yard tank and verify that it’s not just as rusty as the tank you have now, I’d just go with a new tank.
That exact thing happened on my '76 C10 too. The bottom of the truck’s not particularly rusty, but there were a bunch of little nooks right next to tank that road grime could accumulate in that it eventually rusted through. Sounds like another one of those GM problems that spans the decades!
Luckily it is pretty easy to change the tank out, and you should price out a new one because at least on mine buying a new tank wasn’t too expensive.
Most of the full size pickup gas tanks I have removed I removed the bed of the truck to do it. Four people easily can remove the bed. This was is better because the fuel lines to the top of the tank are difficult to deal with. You are certainly free to drop the tank the traditional way.