Cutting access panel in trunk floor to change fuel pump.

[Hippie]

Have to change the pump on a '90 Regal. It's no cherry and rather than hassle with all the 16 year old crud underneath I'm going in through the trunk floor with a cutoff wheel. I'm pretty good with one but there is one spot where ythere is a channel in the floor and I may have to go a little deeper. Anybody know how much clearance there is between the lines ansd wires and the trunk floor? I have access to a spot welder at work so I'll spot weld braces on the piece I cut out and then set it back in the hole with a generous bead of auto body sealer around the edges and then run a couple short screws through the braces into the floor at either end, throw the trunk mat back in and nobody will ever know.

[GP1138]

Uh. The fuel tank is under the rear seat, so if you cut through the trunk, you'll have great access to your garage floor.

[SleeperRed90TGp]

Uh. The fuel tank is under the rear seat, so if you cut through the trunk, you'll have great access to your garage floor.

 

Now that's some funny shit. :lol: I guess only Hippies would destroy a perfectly good trunk.

[Psych0matt]

Uh. The fuel tank is under the rear seat, so if you cut through the trunk, you'll have great access to your garage floor.

 

Sweet! I've been wondering how the heck I'm going to find those sockets I dropped.

[Hippie]

Uh. The fuel tank is under the rear seat, so if you cut through the trunk, you'll have great access to your garage floor.

 

Now that's some funny shit. :lol: I guess only Hippies would destroy a perfectly good trunk.

 

Hey, "Werner" and "Albert", the section of the tank with the fuel pump is right BEHIND the upper rear seat under the section of trunk floor directly below the package shelf and right in front of the rear suspension, I've already measured from under the car and inside the trunk and then measured a gas tank in the junk yard but I couldn't get the distance from the top of the tank to the underside of the trunk. Don't suppose you noticed how much taller the rear of the tank is than the front. Now where do you suppose that taller section goes? Up inside the upper back seat? That would be nice and comfy on the old back wouldn't it? Try again......... Must be a bunch of "hippies" working at GM because they started putting an access panel there in '97, better get 'em to stop before they ruin any more trunks........ But hey, thanks for all your helpful input.

 

As far as soaking the bolts with PB Blaster and doing it the "right" way, I would but this is just an old work beater with a ton of miles on it. It looks like Hell but runs and drives really nice. If it had less miles and a better body I'd drop the tank but it isn't. Besides this car spent most of the last 6 or 7 years on the local gravel and mud roads and that crap dries like concrete and I'm too old and lazy to clean it off so the penetrating oil can even get to the bolts. I've had to do that too many times in my life and if there's an easier way I'm all for it. Plus this way I only have to mess with the connections right where everything goes in the tank.

 

Laugh all you want guys, maybe it's the "redneck" way but if it keeps me from eating a bunch of dirt and gravel and fighting rusted hardware then all I can say is "Hell Yeah!"

[GnatGoSplat]

Dropping the tank is not all that difficult, not even for me and I'm just a lazy sedentary computer nerd.

In the time it took you to measure gas tanks at the yard, measuring the underside of the trunk, and researching where all the lines are run... you probably could have had the tank pulled and fuel pump replaced already.

 

If this car were a keeper where you intend to change fuel pumps several times during the lifetime of the car, an access hole might be a good idea if done professionally. If this is a one-time thing, I wouldn't bother.

 

[Hippie]

Dropping the tank is not all that difficult, not even for me and I'm just a lazy sedentary computer nerd.

In the time it took you to measure gas tanks at the yard, measuring the underside of the trunk, and researching where all the lines are run... you probably could have had the tank pulled and fuel pump replaced already.

 

If this car were a keeper where you intend to change fuel pumps several times during the lifetime of the car, an access hole might be a good idea if done professionally. If this is a one-time thing, I wouldn't bother.

 

 

You're from Missouri so I assume you've been out mudding a time or two in the good old Midwest Yellow Clay........... Imagine the bottom of the 4 wheeler after about 5 or 6 years and never having been washed out only with lime dust and gravel mixed in with the mud and packed around all the hose clamps, wires and bolts. I've tangled with this concoction many many times over the past 35 years and if I don't have to I'm not doing it again, I'm 50 years old and I just don't need the aggravation. It took 3 days of soaking with MMO just to get the friggin' fuel filter broken loose and it wasn't that old. Have you ever had a line wrench slip on you and round the fitting off? Neither had I until this SOB. I'm not some 16 year old Newb that doesn't know a lug nut from a connecting rod, I've been turning wrenches longer than most of you have even been alive and I've dropped a fuel tank more than once but I'm NOT doing it on this pig. You guys can tell me how easy it is all you want but you haven't been under this thing. I don't mean to be rude or argumentitive but you guys aren't helping me a bit.

[jeremy]

cutting an access panel would be a decent idea, however I have no idea how much room that you wold have to work with....I would think that you could remove the few screws in the front left hand corner of the trunk that follow the wiring to the pump (under carpet obviously)...by removing those you should be able to get your finger or two in the hole as it is an inch or so wide to help you determine how much room is between the tank and the trunk floor ...that is the only thing I can think of

[Hippie]

cutting an access panel would be a decent idea, however I have no idea how much room that you wold have to work with....I would think that you could remove the few screws in the front left hand corner of the trunk that follow the wiring to the pump (under carpet obviously)...by removing those you should be able to get your finger or two in the hole as it is an inch or so wide to help you determine how much room is between the tank and the trunk floor ...that is the only thing I can think of

 

 

 

 

THANK YOU!!!!

[94CutlassSLCoupe]

the tank literally almost touches the floorpan...i'd be afraid of cutting though it! If i remeber right the wiring comes through the floor in the neighborhood of the floor and the connector is on the driver's side of the gas tank or on top of it.

 

Pulling the tank really is a breeze if you have an impact. The rear bolts kinda suck but you really only have to take one of them out. I replaced a tank on our first one that has 200k and was really rusty and it wasn't that bad.

[Hippie]

the tank literally almost touches the floorpan...i'd be afraid of cutting though it! If i remeber right the wiring comes through the floor in the neighborhood of the floor and the connector is on the driver's side of the gas tank or on top of it.

 

 

Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. THAT and jeremy's reply were the kind of input I was looking for.

 

Guys if this was a car with the normal amount of dirt and road grunge underneath the tank would be out and the new fuel pump in and we wouldn't be having all this "fun" but this thing is as nasty as anything I've ever been under and I've been under some real nightmares. I'm just not going to fight it. Once I throw the trunk mat back in no one is ever going to see it and I really doubt the rest of the car will outlast this fuel pump. I figure I can get another 3 or 4 years of commuting out of it and then it's soup cans. I drive about 22,000 a year. I'll take some pictures before I seal it back up.

[Hippie]

I got part of it cut then my wheel shredded and it appears "someone" has been into my supply of cutoff wheels............ Anyway the plate for the lines is just to the left of the center rib in the trunk floor not centered like I thought and the forward edge is just about where the floor starts to make the bend downward at the rear seat but there's room to make the cut. The lines are about 5/16" below the trunk floor but the wiring runs across the top of the fuel lines so it gets very close. The top of my tank is every bit as nasty as the underside, I'm beginning to think this car or at least the back half has been under water and not clean water either............ Ever seen one that's been pulled out of the Mississippi after a few days and then left to dry? That's what the top of the gas tank looks like, the lines look more like a solid part of the tank than individual pieces and when you get the stuff hot it smells like stagnant back water. I still think in this case it's the best way but I'd suggest anyone else think twice before attempting it. It would be REAL easy to snag a fuel line or wiring harness. If it's a car you plan to keep a LONG time and you have the tank out already you might consider cutting an access hole while you have the tank down but what are the odds of anyone keeping one THAT long?

[2CUTTYS]

here is a solution that works 50% of the time and involves no work and could be cheap. Hire a teenage kid to do it.

[Hippie]

here is a solution that works 50% of the time and involves no work and could be cheap. Hire a teenage kid to do it.

 

No thanks, a teenager and his buddies have already "worked" on this car, after I replace the fuel pump I still have to repair all their handiwork.................

[Crazy K]

damn! take some pictures!

 

I would just drop the tank, you also have the issue that the lines from the sending unit spiderweb out... going forward beneath the rear seat and everything.

 

take a hose and pressure blast the underside of the car if you can, or at least attack it with a scrub brush and a garden hose.

 

[Regal_GS_1989]

you could always see if there is a place that operates a touchless car wash where they give you free re-washes until you are satisfied. I ran my regal through on 3 times in a row because I wasnt' "Satisfied" Only cost me 5$ too.