drooman

I'm tired of fooling around with used fuel tanks in one of my early CIS cars and am ready to bite the bullet on a new one. Most used tanks I get hold of are PRE-STRESSED in the same spot, right where the left front strap comes off the bottom plate of the cradle and turns the corner to go up to the body. It seems that over time, and/or from being removed and reinstalled (perhaps just a little cockeyed) the tanks all suffer from deformation in this area.

Interestingly enough many of these stressed tanks hold fuel for a few months after install then begin to leak in that very spot. I've swapped a lot of tanks over the years and there's more to it than one might think. it's a precision fit, between the straps, foam, and fitment into the body it has to be just right...that fuel cap has to end up right in the center of the body hole or its in wrong. I'm quite wary of used tanks anyway and have done my time replacing the threaded sleeves with mixed success.

Mr. Brown weighed in on a "fix the fuel tank" thread a few months ago with the idea that if a tank has any leak issue it belongs in the dumpster, and that he routinely install new tanks for customers. I get it.

To my knowledge, the original CIS configuration tanks are NLA. I think the only difference in these tanks is the shape of big divot the tank in the area of the fuel pump, which was made quite a bit larger for LH cars when the filter was moved down there. There are also four different cradles (5 if you count pre-production) the four common ones are 78-79, 80-83, 83-86, 87-95.

There seems to be only one variant of new fuel tank available "80-95" The question is which cradle to use, I have 77-79 cradles and 80-83 cradles.

Has anyone put a later tank in a CIS car? how did it go?

SwedeInSiam

I have a tank from a '91 (according to seller) in my '80S. Looked the same as the tank I removed.
I use the original '80 cradle.

Guy

I had an 80 Euro many moons ago. It had the early style tank and strap. I retrofitted an 83 tank and strap along with the newer style filter etc into the car. I had to take everything off the 83. The earlier strap wouldn't fit and vice versa

SB928

Same boat right now. Current tank turned out to be a '92 in my '79 RoW. Original '79 cradle/strap was bolted up fine that did not appear to be rigged. The first sign that something was amiss was no flange bolt to remove behind the filler door to hold the filler nozzle centered on the door. Thought maybe mine had rusted off, but then saw that there was nothing to bolt to.
The pump, however, was just sitting inside the outer cover when I took it off.
I'm also going to find a newer cradle as I already have the pump/filter configuration waiting for installation.
Bob