Removing the Gas Tank From the Citroen D Model…

The tank is drained…

Now that the tank is drained, it is time to get back to those 8mm nuts we sprayed with penetrating oil earlier. Find your 8mm, hopefully 6 point socket and get onto these nuts carefully.

If they come off easy that’s great, consider yourself lucky. What you have to remember is these nuts are attached to some 5mm studs that come through the trunk wall and breaking them off is just going to make a great deal of work for you later.

If they give some resistance, then you want to loosen them slightly, then slightly tighten them again. Spray some more penetrating oil on them, and repeat the process.

Take your time and they should all come off without snapping on you. The key is not to put so much resistance on them that they snap. When you feel them giving a bit of resistance back off and slightly tighten them to release the resistance. Remember it does not take much to break a 5mm shaft on a bolt.

OK, the nuts are off…

Once these are off and you have removed the gravel shield, you will notice that there is a short length of rubber hose that the filler neck attaches to before it connects to the actual neck of the gas tank on its way through the frame.

Here you will notice some clamps. You want to remove them. If they are original strapping clamps it is easiest to cut them off with your wire cutters, or equivalent.

Up close to the cap, or fill end, of the fuel filler neck you will notice a vent tube. On later models there was a charcoal canister attached into this vent. Carefully disconnect things and be sure you inspect all the tubing and hoses for splits and leaks. This is an easier time to replace them than when you have a full tank of fuel.

The clamps are off…

Once all the clamps are off and you have popped out the rubber surround from around the filler cap, you want to wiggle the filler neck loose from the rubber hose that connects it to the tank. Once this is done, carefully pull the rubber hose off of the tank spout.

This piece can get very hard with age, and is often prone to splitting. I have had the best luck with replacing it with 2″ inside diameter fuel hose from my local auto parts store such as NAPA. I also understand that recently a reproduction of this piece has become available. Here in the states it can be found at: Brad Nauss Automotive. You can contact him at: citparts@aol.com

Now for the straps…

Now you want to move back into the car. You will notice two straps that hold the tank down. At the front of the fuel tank compartment there are screws that hold these straps down.

Loosen the screws enough to unhook the straps at the front. Now remove the back end of the strap where it hooks into the frame.

This can be sort of tricky and you might have to use a large flat bladed screw driver and nudge the tank forward a bit in the compartment in order to get these ends out. Push between the back of the gas tank compartment wall and the flange on the fuel tank.

Around the sides of the gas tank, you will notice pieces of molded rubber tubing that are secured with a metal tab holding the rubber tubing against the flange that runs around the fuel tank.

These help to keep the tank from moving around in this compartment, along with the straps you just removed. Take your screw driver and get under the tabs and bring them up toward you and flatten them out against the wall of the fuel compartment so that the rubber tubing can be removed.

This is very important…

Flattening these tabs up against the walls of the fuel compartment is very important, because when you reinstall the tank unless this is done the flange on the tank will catch these tabs and make them impossible to retrieve unless you pull the tank out and flatten them out again.

I know I am going into great detail on this whole project, but believe me I have taken quite a few of these tanks in and out in my time and there are a lot of pitfalls that I have personally been through that I want you to avoid if at all possible.

This part stinks…

Now, we get to my least favorite part of removing the D Model fuel tank and the part that you have to be very careful with. On that right side of the car you will notice a panel that closes off the door sill from the rocker panel.

If this is a Pallas D Model it will be a stainless or aluminum, two piece, attached together strip that runs the length under the door sills and cuts at a 45 degree angle from the bottom rocker edge of the Citroen and is attached to the under edge of the door sill with quite a few screws.

If this not a Pallas model Citroen, then there will be two tapered panels up under this sill closing off the area between the sill and rocker and each panel is held on by several screws. Remove the panels and place them off to the side were you won’t step on them.

Do you see the two hoses…

Looking back into the fuel tank compartment you will see two hoses that go into the front right corner of the tank. One you will notice is a vent tube. Remove the clamp and pull it free from the stand tube where it connects to the tank.

Now comes the fun part. Look under the sill that you have just exposed. You will notice the fuel line comes through the wall of the fuel tank compartment and runs up the side of the car toward the engine compartment.

There should be a small clamp that holds the line against the wall just a few inches forward of where it comes through from the gas tank compartment. There is an 8mm headed bolt holding the clamp. Remove the bolt and remove the clamp from the line. (very important!)

Now, back into the fuel tank compartment. Notice that fuel hose that you saw running up the side of the car just a minute ago.

It is made of an old type of vinyl called Rislan. It can be very brittle and you will have to exercise great care with it not to put a kink in it or it can split. This hose as it comes through the wall of the fuel tank compartment runs through a larger diameter rubber hose.

This rubber hose is attached to the metal stand pipe on the fuel tank. Then the Rislan hose continues down into the fuel tank and goes down into the tank, out of the curved stand pipe and into the center of those washers/discs filter that I spoke of in an earlier article.

Please be gentle…

Now here is were you are going to use some “gentle strength.” What I mean is, you will have to gently pull that fuel line out of the fuel tank stand tube without putting a kink in that Rislan tubing.

I usually begin by putting on a pair of leather gloves and grabbing that rubber hose that attaches to the tank stand pipe and getting a good grip, pull on it. Now, what you will be doing is pulling the whole thing out and through the wall of the fuel tank compartment.

You may find that some lubricant, such as spray silicone, will work best here… sprayed on the rubber grommets that go through the fuel tank compartment wall to allow the rubber hose to slide more easily through the fuel tank wall.

Sometimes if I have one that is really stubborn and does not want to move, I have been known to put some flat billed pliers on the rubber hose and use the inside top edge of the fuel tank compartment as a leverage point to get the hose to start to come up out of the fuel tank and come out the hole of the wall through to the outside of the car.

Remember that clamp…

Remember how I said to remove that clamp on the outside wall and how it was important. Well, here is where you will have to get your hand up in between the sill and side of the car and pull on that rubber hose, and if you did not remove that clamp, you would put a kink in the rislan hose potentially causing it to split and leak.

Once you have pulled the fuel pick up hose completely through the wall of the fuel tank compartment and have its end out under the sill, you can start to take the fuel tank out of the car.

Make sure that the pick up wire for the fuel sender unit is out of the way. I sometimes will wrap tape around it to protect it from getting cut by the flange of the fuel tank as it is removed.

One thing you will want to do at this point is to find a suitable plug to put into the filler neck on the tank before you start to remove it, just in case there is any residual fuel still in the tank. This way it won’t spill out when we have to tilt the tank to lift it out of its compartment.

OK, it’s coming out…

Now, you want to get your large flat blade screw driver and get it between the front wall of the fuel tank compartment and the front flange of the fuel tank. Pry back on the tank to move it as far back into the compartment as you can.

This is to avoid a clearance problem with the two hooks in the front of the compartment where the straps were attached.

Now that you have done this, watch your fingers for pinch points and lift the front of the tank up so that it is high enough to slide it forward and the the neck of the tank back in the passenger side corner will clear the hole in the frame and allow the tank to be removed from the D Model.

It’s finally out…

At this time we can put the tank on the bench, plug up or tape up the various holes in the tank, and lets talk about what we want to do with the tank.

Next time…

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