How
To's:
Blazer tank How-to:
This mod, the way I did
it, utilizes the existing rear frame support and the spare tire holder.
Keep in mind if you go this route, you will loose the spare tire holder
location, and if you had/have duals running out the back, it will pose
a problem unless you run them outside the framerails somehow.
These are the steps I followed to
complete this installation. First, a piece of angle was welded to
the rear of the frame rails to keep everything square since we were removing
the rear frame brace.
Once this is done, the rivets holding the rear support were removed using an air
hammer. Then the spare tire holder was removed, along with the brake line
support. Now the rear of the framerails are empty and void. The large frame
support is now moved to the extreme back of the frame and new holes are drilled in the top
and bottom flanges of the framerails using the existing rivet holes as a guide.
We got the brace as close to vertical as possible.
The brace is bolted in using Grade 8 bolts and the gas tank is raised into posistion for
fitment and measuring. Once up and level, take the old spare tire support
and mark its posistion at the front of the tank.
It happened that the drop in this support was exactly enough for the tank to sit level in
the framerails. Once the holes are measured off and marked they are
drilled and the spare tire support is mounted underneath the top flange
of the framerail. We used a 1" spacer between the support and the
framerail. The brake bracket is mounted to the top of the framerail
at the passenger side bolt hole on the sparetire support.
For the support straps, a 1.5"
angle was cut to fit in between the framerail with the flanged side at
the rear of the truck. The straps were mocked up and the hole locations
marked and drilled. Depening on the size of the strap anchor, I made
these holes pretty "close" in fit. For the rear support holes, the
straps were mounted in the new holes and the hole locations were marked
and holes were drilled. Since the rear support had a curved lip to
it, and I didn't want to make something to fit to tighten the bolts up,
I used a Big Block rocker fulcrum on the top with a washer and nut and
used a washer and nut of the bottom. In the end, 14 holes were drilled
in the frame. 8 for the rear support, 4 for the front strap support,
2 for the spare tire support. 2 holes were drilled in the rear support
and 2 in the front strap support for the straps to mount.
Due to clearance issues, you will have to notch the bed cross sill in the center. Otherwise, the bed will be resting on the tank instead of the frame rails. I marked the crosssill by eye and trimmed it off with a cut-off wheel. In addition to the, the brake like will have to be moved and relocated. I opted to cut the end off and weld it to the front top mount. (former spare tire mount)
If you have any questions,comments or suggestions email
me...
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