Lotus Europa Community
Lotus Europa Forums => Members Cars => Topic started by: Europa73 on Friday,March 03, 2017, 11:29:37 AM
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quick question -
Is it much of a pain to remove the gas tanks?
Cheers,
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It's not bad if you can lift the car over three feet off the floor. You have to take off the covers that are pop riveted in the front of the wheel well. Then you can get to the bolts that hold it up. Of course, you have to disconnect all the "hoses" and take off the fuel fillers first.
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3 feet off the floor Ugg....
I guess no way to lift them out?
Cheers,
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Not a chance.
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3 feet off the floor Ugg....
I guess no way to lift them out?
Cheers,
Not on my TC, I followed the BDA route of dropping them through the floor. If the engine is out or the cylinder head off there might be a way, I don't know.
You might not need to lift the car so much because you can twist/angle them as they come out, but it's still a significant height and the car obviously needs to be secure. I had some tall axle stands which helped, otherwise it's stacks of bricks or wooden blocks.
Brian
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I have just put mine into a bare bodyshell, detached from the chassis.
There is no other way than through the bottom.
4 x 7/16" bolts and large penny washers hold them in place.
Prepare to lose skin undoing them. A small ratchet socket or spanner (wrench) is needed.
Even when they are loose, they are still difficult to get out or back in.
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I have just put mine into a bare bodyshell, detached from the chassis.
That's interesting and a very useful insight. If you can't fit them in a bare bodyshell then that certainly answers the original question !
Presumably it's the fibreglass which shields the tanks from the chassis/road dirt and cover the tops of the Y forks that are the problem, not enough space to wriggle them out ?
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The tanks are big and just don't fit through the space into the engine compartment. If they did, I would expect they would have closed in the fibreglass below the tanks to stop them rusting from below.
But here we are 43+ years after most were made, and I have only seen many of the tank tops rust. Out of the 14 original steel tanks here, I would estimate 10 have rust holes in the tops.
Alex in Norfolk.
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I never liked the design of the original tanks. Having a steel tank with that "rolled" joint at the top where water can collect is just a bad idea. They should have used a better design but that surely would have been more expensive. It would have even been better if they had been made of aluminum, but that would have been even more expensive and pretty far out of the mainstream for the time. All that at a time when Europas were already pretty expensive and they had their problems selling them as it was.
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Having just today fitted the chassis to the body, the chassis does not interfere at all with the tanks.
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The safest way to remove the tanks is unbolt the tank from the inner tub (4 bolts) and drop them to the floor. The tank is 21" tall so just guessing here, lift the rear of the car about 18" or so, enough to angle the tanks out from the body.
The picture shows my TCS on front ramps and rear cribbing in the middle of an engine removal. The underside of the body is approximately 14.5" off the floor. I estimate one more layer of cribbing (4"or 5" of additional height) should be enough to allow removal of the tank with some wiggling. If you have an engine hoist, use that to lift the rear.
Joji Tokumoto
Fallbrook, Ca
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Thanks for the update, Joji. That's better than I thought!
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This all going on old memory from several years ago when I installed the gas tanks on the Cosworth. The maximum height required should not be greater than the tank which is 21".
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Many thanks for all the comments -
Much appreciated.
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Joji, please do not go under a car supported that way. If someone slipped and fell against it, it would come crashing down.
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I am also getting ready to remove my TC fuels tanks from the body (chassis is already removed). I'm fortunate to have a lift and spent time looking at all the possible ways to remove the fuel tanks, coming to the same conclusion that they would only come out the bottom.
Joji, I shuddered at your car on dolly platforms on the rear. VERY unsafe! Here is a suggestion: before I had a lift I had two sizes of jack stands, small for easy work (like brake jobs and tire changing) and large for getting under the car with a creeper. For the large jack stands I made wooden platforms that had sides glued and screwed in and rubber on the top. These were captured on the top of the jack stand by the size of the horizontal metal piece so the platform couldn't move. The whole idea of the platform was to spread the load on Lotus fiberglass bodies as well as provide a much more stable platform for being under the car. They worked so well, I made a set for my lift outrigger arms and use them all the time.
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I removed my by jacking the car up and placing jack stands under all 4 shocks 12"-14".
I pulled the tanks down and to the front came right out.
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I appreciate all of the concern about my setup and am well aware of the dangers. I'm experimenting with using the ATV lifts in raising and lowering the car without using an engine hoist during engine removal. The lifts are rated for 1500# apiece and both have mechanical locks to support the load. The wooden cribbing currently supporting the rear tires are a bit too short for my comfort level. My future plan is to weld a metal cradle to the lift to safely support the tires. In the mean time, I will be using jackstands to support the rear of the frame when I get ready to disconnect the engine mount bracket and lower links. I will also replace the front ramps with wider wood cribbing at the same time for greater stability. I'll be under the car doing a lot of pulling and pushing so you can bet your ass that the car will be safely supported.
I've had the car in this position for close to a year with no problems. It's pretty stable side to side, the danger is the car rolling backwards. The picture shows the 6 ton jackstands that I will using along with the wood base to support he rear frame. If I survive this adventure, I'll post pictures of the final setup.
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Just add nailed/screwed 4x4s (front and back of all wheels) to prevent the wheels from rolling.
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2x4s also work almost as well as wheel stops screwed to 2x12s as used in the picture.
If anyone needs to move their Europa around in the garage, a relatively cheap and effective alternative to the expensive dedicated wheel dollies is to make your own using the Harbor Freight moving dolly as a base. They can be purchased for between $7-$8 on sale along with scrap 2x4s and 2x12s or 2x10s cut to length for the wheel stop. Granted the casters used by Harbor Fright are not of the highest quality but with some effort, moving a Europa around the garage can be done by one person. After the Europa is in position, stack additional cribbing to raise the car to required height for a pretty stable platform. I used this method to raise the Europa to install the gas tanks.