MadScientistGuy

I've seen a few threads on how to remove a fuel tank from a CRX but nothing really gave a clear idea. I thought I'd remove mine, since I need to anyway, and post pictures and a how-to in order to get it out. It's honestly not that hard, but there are things that do get annoying.

To start here are the tools you will need:

10mm socket and/or wrench
12mm wrench
8mm wrench or socket
PB Blaster or equivalent
17mm wrench or socket
Safety glasses (Trust Me)
Rags (Trust Me Again)

To start, make sure you have the entire rear of the car high enough off of the ground and on stands (be safe) so that you can get the tank out from under the car. You will need at least a good 12 inches, at least I went that high, maybe even 14 or 16 to be honest. I like a lot of room to work with.

Next, if you still have the OEM tank and have fuel in the tank, drain it. There is a 17mm drain bolt on the rear driver's side of the tank. Only thing I do not have a picture of. But trust me you can't miss it. Drain as much fuel as you can, it makes the tank lighter to handle and it keeps you from getting drenched in fuel.

I dropped my exhaust in order to take the tank out, you may want to as well, but it may not be mandatory depending on your setup. You should go ahead and remove the rear heat shield if/when you do. Four 10mm bolts there and it's out. Doing all of this gives you the maximum amount of room to work with.

Next, there is a plastic cover panel on the rear driver's side of the car that runs right next to the trailing arm. There are four 10mm bolts holding it in. Removing this panel will grant you access to all of the fuel lines and wires going to and from the pump.

Now you are ready to start dropping the tank. There are two straps holding the tank up to the car, which are tightened by threaded anchors. These anchors have 12mm nuts holding them in place. I used a ratchet wrench on the bottom of the two nuts, the closest to the ground.



Depending on how old or rusty your car is, PB Blaster comes in handy here.

Loosen these nuts on both straps probably about an inch downward to give you room to manipulate the strap. The anchor is snagged in holes in the body of the car. Loosening the nuts enough will give you enough room to wiggle the anchor out of the hole. I did one at a time. Once the first strap was off on the anchor side, it's just a matter of wiggling the other end of the strap where it hooks to the car by the exhaust heat shield, and the strap drops. This is why we drain fuel from the tank to make it lighter. Once you loosen the second strap enough you will have to hold the tank up high enough to pop that last anchor out and pull the strap off the car. You can either have someone help you hold it up while you pull out the anchor or maybe you can hold it up with a jack, up to you.



Once both straps are off the rear half of the tank will drop. At this point you have access to the fuel pump. So if you are just swapping pumps, don't remove the straps completely off the car, just drop the anchor side and swap the pumps, and swing the tank back up and secure the anchors and you're done. To do that you probably won't need to drop your exhaust either, but will still probably need to drop that plastic cover I mentioned earlier.



But once the rear half of the tank is dropped, you will see two fuel lines going to the pump assembly, the supply, and the return. Both will need to be disconnected to get the tank completely off the car. To disconnect the supply, I just removed the 17mm banjo bolt on the pump assembly itself, and moved the line out of the way. For the return, I unclamped the rubber line off of the hard line that is bolted to the tank. That was easiest for me.

Once these two lines are unhooked, you will need to disconnect your fuel filler hoses. There are two of them on the front driver's side of the tank. One large and one small. Now I kept reading that you need to pull the cargo box from the cabin of the car for some odd reason, I never had to at any point in this tank removal. But unhook those two lines, both are clamped on, so use whichever sort of pliers work best for you and your hands, as it is pretty tight in that area.



The clamp holding the rubber hose to the large filler hose on my car was not connected and dangling, so that made it easy to get the larger hose off. Now I removed the hoses from the hard lines on the car, not the tank, again easier for me that way.

But once you get both of those lines unhooked, the tank will pop free and you can wiggle it past your exhaust and on to the ground. Last but not least there will be a red (mine was red) breather hose that comes off the tank right near the two filler hoses, that will need to be removed. I just used an 8mm wrench to take off the two bolts holding the what I think is a pressure relief valve off of the tank, then removed the line going to the tank itself, and let it hang.



Once all of this is done, the only thing holding the tank on is the pump wiring and the level sender wiring. The level sender clip is at the front center of the tank held on by a green connector. Most people will tell you to disconnect this first by removing the cargo box in the cabin and pulling off that little silver cover using 3 philips screws. What I did was just unplug it on the tank itself. There is a little green connector that just pops right off and you don't have to go in your cabin for anything. Easier that way if you ask me.



Finally, swing the tank around to you and remove the fuel pump assembly from the tank. It is held in by six 10mm nuts. Wiggle the fuel pump assembly out and set it off to the side and voila, your tank is free.





Now some are probably wondering why I didn't just pull the fuel pump assembly off earlier. I waited so that I could have as much space as possible to remove it, and since all of my suspension is currently off the car, moving it to a larger area of the car made it easier for me. So I removed the banjo to the pump to give me as much maneuverability as possible. Again this is a guide, you can do this however you want, this is just how I did it. This is my first time doing this so I learned as I went.

To reinstall the tank, or a new tank in my case, the process is simply this write up in reverse order. Hope all of this helps. Cheers!

If you have any questions or concerns or something I may have missed feel free to ask me in the comments.

MadScientistGuy

I'll include these pictures I also have for any additional reference that may be needed.

csingham

Thank you. I have to tackle this over the weekend. Did you just put the car on jack stands?

was removing the rear drivers side trailing arm necessary?

MadScientistGuy

Yea car's on stands and I was removing all suspension anyway. But for normal replacement you shouldn't have to remove anything. The brake cables might be in the way but only slightly. They run right where the straps latch to the front side of the car.

ForceFed MS2

Thanks for the detailed photos and the writeup. Gives me a much better idea of what I'm up against to tomorrow morning than the FSM provides.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

No need to remove the cables on rear drums. I did this recently myself. Thanks for updating the photos.

v4lu3s

nice writeup! specially with pics. I have done so many that i dont even want to take the time to take pics, but it definitely will help a lot of folks do it right the first time.

Freemananana

iTrader: (3)

This is a scary procedure for the first time. But when you get it done, you realize it wasn't hard at all.

DAslow9

Nice write up, I just did this job a few days ago and it's not difficult, just take your time - don't be intimidated.

hendog

Quick ? How do you know your 89 CRX is an si, hf, or dx

JDM JON

doing this right now to my 01 gsr...working on the hangers at the moment, draining the tank and unplugging the top wasn't to bad, very messy job so far but slow progress is good progress i guess.

JDM JON

got the tank removed finally PITA without a lift, i had to cut some hose's that were super dry rotted which will have to be replaced anyway...now time to wait for the tank to get here sometime next week to wreck my brain ever more.