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164 fuel tank removal

2714 Views 13 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  richardbradford
Hi,

can I ask what is involved in removing the fuel tank on a 164 - assume same for both series 1 and 2.
Thanks
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It's been a few months, but this is what I recall from memory.

I would drain the pressure from the sender lines somehow. We removed a relay while the car was running and let it use all the gas that was still in the lines. I believe it's one to the right of the radiator.

Disconnect battery, remove truck carpets and rear wall carpet/styrofoam pieces.

Remove black plastic fuel sender guard.
Remove and disconnect all plugs/lines where applicable. Be very careful here, some of these tubes are hardened plastic and can/will crack. Ensure all lines are free from sending unit.

Jack up rear of car. Unbolt the clamp holding the fuel filler neck to rear fender wall.

Get under car. Remove rear sway bar.
Unbolt e-brake line from rubber mount to frame, so you can move it out of the way.

Remove all the bolts that bolt into the gas tank. Remove all bolts 75% of the way before completely removing them so the tank drops evenly.

That should be it to remove the tank. While you're there, you may want to replace the fuel hoses inside the tank with the proper submersible hoses. Will save you quite the hassle later on.

For those of you who are experts, feel free to correct any of my errors!

Good luck!
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It's been a few months, but this is what I recall from memory.

I would drain the pressure from the sender lines somehow. We removed a relay while the car was running and let it use all the gas that was still in the lines. I believe it's one to the right of the radiator.

Disconnect battery, remove truck carpets and rear wall carpet/styrofoam pieces.

Remove black plastic fuel sender guard.
Remove and disconnect all plugs/lines where applicable. Be very careful here, some of these tubes are hardened plastic and can/will crack. Ensure all lines are free from sending unit.

Jack up rear of car. Unbolt the clamp holding the fuel filler neck to rear fender wall.

Get under car. Remove rear sway bar.
Unbolt e-brake line from rubber mount to frame, so you can move it out of the way.

Remove all the bolts that bolt into the gas tank. Remove all bolts 75% of the way before completely removing them so the tank drops evenly.

That should be it to remove the tank. While you're there, you may want to replace the fuel hoses inside the tank with the proper submersible hoses. Will save you quite the hassle later on.

For those of you who are experts, feel free to correct any of my errors!

Good luck!
Hi,

many thanks for this ChiapC.

Great if can get it out without removing rear subframe.

Will give it a go, cheers :)

Richard
Hi,

many thanks for this ChiapC.

Great if can get it out without removing rear subframe.

Will give it a go, cheers :)

Richard
Not very likely, you need to drop sub frame to get tank down and out or at least loosen 4 sub frame mounting bolts to get some clearance.
If your scrapping this car, I'd just drop the whole subframe and keep the bits off of it you want, then gas tank removal is easy.
not sure what he's got going on as there are threads everywhere about various things. Bear in mind his is euro and the tank plastic I'd bet. I think - not too often - but think it's an easy to do straight forward process. Old skool shall we say. ciao chris
Yes, do have a few threads around the place. Major dismantling of a twinspark and much advice sought. Very grateful for all responses, thanks :)
ah so same as mine. I think the tank just drops out without a lot of major work re the subframe an such. You parting it or got a donor? ciao jc
2021 update. Am now dropping the EU plastic tank on a car I intend to keep. Intending to keep it changes things. Previously I could angle grind through things in the way - not now.
With new brake lines looking lovely, I don't want to have to disrupt them by removing the rear subframe. Instead I plan to lover the rear subframe half an inch, possibly by swapping in a longer bolt to each side of the subframe, using white paint/typex, to mark the subframe point on the body when rebuilding to keep alignment.
Under the car, today removed the handbrake cable from fuel tank and trailing arm fixtures. Test undid all the fuel tank bolts - half a turn on each before gently returning to almost original position. Bolt head under front of tank (13mm socket) took some cleaning up to understand was just rust making it seem bigger than 13mm.
The rear sway/anti-roll bar blocks the tank removal, which is good when driving the car, to know your fuel tank can't just plonk on the floor. I remember undoing the (M10) bolts for the bar on the car I scrapped were so tight they felt close to snapping before freeing off. The ones on my car today felt the same but I avoided the test. Instead, 6 years on with greater knowledge, I will undo the trailing arm to body bolt and drop the bars this way. These bolts were undone 'only' 10 years ago so should be fine. And if they snap, no problem - just pull out the parts and put in new ones.
This is obviously a bit of a project but, for those of us with 164s, more and more of us are going to need to know how to sort such issues, to keep our under-rated and beloved machines on the road.
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iirc you need about 3/4 in drop on the rear subframe to get the tank out, did the on a metal tank car and got it out. You will need about 2ft of room under the car and a helper. If the filler neck comes off it will be much easier but if it doesn’t prepare for a wrestling match


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Thanks. Have put one longer bolt each side of the rear subframe to allow it to drop enough without dropping the actual subframe.
I did this once before on an identical car and only had about a foot of clearance under the car. Found that as long as it has enough space to clear the bodyshell was able to drag it out. Have removed sway bar - one sheered bolt to be drilled out (naturally none broke previously on the other car, where it wouldn't have mattered if they did as was being scrapped.)
Did you unmount the rear brake calipers to get enough handbrake cable movement to clear the tank? Am thinking will have to do that - was getting dark today before had chance to actually drop the tank.
I think I just disconnected the cables from the calipers. I also sheared one bolt while doing it, just drilled it out and put a longer one in with a nut.


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Got the tank out yesterday and have rebuilt the fuel pump assembly. Fuel filter holder etc needs rebuilding too but is also out.
Question: have been taking quite a few pics of this rebuild. Once all done, do you think should start a new thread as 'the complete story' or add the further details in this thread?
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