Removal of Ferret Mk 2/3 fuel tank

[Peter Garwood]

Having just stripped out the fuel lines and filter I have found a pile of goo and other mess in the Vokes fuel filter and in the Banjo filter at the carb.

All of this is making me think I need to clean out the tank.

How does one get it out?

Turret removal?

 

If one pulls it back into the seating area how easy is it to clean ?

Can it be drained and cleaned in situ?

In addition the carb looks very black and dirty.

 

Any ideas welcomed.##

 

Peter

[Catch 22 LBDR]

Not an easy job! The tank has to come forward into the fighting compartment, then twist it out the top. You will need to remove the Turret, gearbox covers, air filter, gearbox stays(behind the Battery boxes) both battery boxes,battery leads and the power distribution box. Don't remove the fuel filter as I find it handy to grip when lifting the tank out. Don't forget to remove the sender/float unit and filler neck.

[61Ferret]

Catch 22 LBDR has pretty much nailed this on the head. I went through this three years ago and once out, I took the tank to a fuel tank repair shop. They cleaned the inside and then sprayed the interior surface with an epoxy coating. There was a lot of hardened sludge at the bottom of the tank and corrosion on the upper surfaces that they easily removed. They cut two access holes into the tank so that the hard to reach areas were not missed. These were obviously welded back up before the coating was applied. The tank still looks as good today as it did the the day that this was done. I found that the fuel lines from the bottom of each side of the tank to the fuel selector valve also needed cleaning. I continuously pushed a thin flexible wire back and forth through these fuel lines. The end of the wire had loosened up a bunch of crud which easily flushed out.

Cheers, Terry.

 

Not an easy job! The tank has to come forward into the fighting compartment, then twist it out the top. You will need to remove the Turret, gearbox covers, air filter, gearbox stays(behind the Battery boxes) both battery boxes,battery leads and the power distribution box. Don't remove the fuel filter as I find it handy to grip when lifting the tank out. Don't forget to remove the sender/float unit and filler neck.

[Grasshopper]

Did this recently and concur with the above information, although I don't recall having to remove the gearbox stays. Our tank was full of rust (the vehicle had been purchased running on an auxiliary supply via a hole in the hull to a fuel can!). Our tank was so rusty that it had one side cut off so it could be shot blasted, and once repaired was treated with a fuel tank specific epoxy coating.

[robin craig]

We are currently in the process of sympathetically plumbing in an alternate fuel supply after having decommissioned the tank in a ferret at work.

 

We have some very neat fittings and it is all 100 per cent reversible should that be needed.

 

The collection of vehicles we look after as part of our work has had fuel issues for a while that started with the methanol issue, since corrected, the other was lack of use.

 

Our direction is a simple quick coupling and a vented jerry can mounted on the rear left fender.

 

Going forward the petrol CVR(T) fleet will get the same treatment.

 

Once we get it all done we will document it all here.

[Catch 22 LBDR]

Hear is a link to some pictures on FB where I carried out some work on a Ferret tank.

 

https://www.facebook.com/combatcars/photos/?tab=album&album_id=678471155643643

[Peter Garwood]

Thanks for all your help and advice.

[Topdog]

"Our direction is a simple quick coupling and a vented jerry can mounted on the rear left fender."

 

Just be aware that this would not be legal on the road in the UK.

[Starfire]

If it's not too bad, you can remove the drain bungs from the bottom of the tank through the access holes on the bottom of the hull and flush it through that way. You'll also probably want to remove and clean out the banjo fittings, fuel lines, tap and filter - that's all I've done with mine and it seems ok, although one of the lines was almost completely blocked and took about an hour of probing with some MIG wire and tapping on a hard surface to get all of the silt out of it.

 

If you do a half-arsed clean out, make sure that you clean out your filter fairly regularly afterwards and be aware that the banjo bolts might block up again (it was a pretty common problem on the Ferret).

 

Cheers,

Terry.

[CaptMax]

I guess I was lucky as mine had only a bit of sediment and the bright galvanizing was really nice inside.

I only had to flush, prime, and repaint. I did have to repair one mount though which is typical of these petrol tanks.

CaptMax

[Peter Garwood]

Thanks everyone.

I will post my saga with pictures as it unfolds - the ENOTS two-way cock was full of crud and is beingoverhauled.

A friend has a optic fibre light to inspect the inside of the tank. He uses it in a regular method of quality assuring petrol tanks.

[Grasshopper]

I was going to use one of those, but in the end didn't need it as the state of the tank was obvious (once drained out)