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Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
1984 Trans Am that has the original gas tank so I want to replace it before any issues. Basic tank with sender, LG4 motor has mechanical fuel pump so no fuel pump. Any recommendations on where to purchase a tank and sender as I have heard of nightmares with fitting and fill neck issues, part #'s would be great. And yes I know its not an easy job because everything has to be dropped. Thanks
I have the full aeromotive stealth setup. It uses a specter tank. It fit well but the filler neck was 1 inch off. It took 30 seconds and a 1/2 piece of pipe to fix it with it in the car. Tuebtank came painted gray and matched my stock tank really well. Just a heads up, i figured my stock 82 tank would be nasty inside back on 2022. It looked brand new inside. There was no need to replace it. But i did cause i had a whole new setup. Theres no way to know till its out. I wish I welded in an access panel cause *** that job.
Thanks for the reply. Do you mean a Spectra tank ? And if you could explain more about the modification you had to do to the neck.
Originally Posted by Firechicken82
I have the full aeromotive stealth setup. It uses a specter tank. It fit well but the filler neck was 1 inch off. It took 30 seconds and a 1/2 piece of pipe to fix it with it in the car. Tuebtank came painted gray and matched my stock tank really well. Just a heads up, i figured my stock 82 tank would be nasty inside back on 2022. It looked brand new inside. There was no need to replace it. But i did cause i had a whole new setup. Theres no way to know till its out. I wish I welded in an access panel cause *** that job.
Yeah, i knew it was something like that. It was stamped in the tank. So the filler is all steel. It has a sort corrugated/flexible section at the base. Once the tank was in and seated the filler wasn't centered in the hole in the body/plastic filler panel. It was 1 inch too far forward. So w the filler panel out, I inserted a 18in long 1/2 inch ratchet extension and used the leverage to gently bend the filler back. It was super easy
Got it. Any tips when removing or installing the new tank ? Looking at Youtube it looks like a nightmare !!
Originally Posted by Firechicken82
Yeah, i knew it was something like that. It was stamped in the tank. So the filler is all steel. It has a sort corrugated/flexible section at the base. Once the tank was in and seated the filler wasn't centered in the hole in the body/plastic filler panel. It was 1 inch too far forward. So w the filler panel out, I inserted a 18in long 1/2 inch ratchet extension and used the leverage to gently bend the filler back. It was super easy
Do it on a lift and patience! I don't have one so having the car up high. Removing all the suspension so the rear end is freely movable and out of the way. The exhaust needs to be out of the way also. I didn't have to remove the drive shaft/torque arm/brakes but all the other parts on the rear needed to get unbolted.
I have a 4 post lift so I should be able to jack up the rear and support the rear frame and lower the alxe. Any Ideas for a sending unit, I cant seem to find one ??? My car does not have the internal fuel pump, two wires only.
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Originally Posted by Firechicken82
Do it on a lift and patience! I don't have one so having the car up high. Removing all the suspension so the rear end is freely movable and out of the way. The exhaust needs to be out of the way also. I didn't have to remove the drive shaft/torque arm/brakes but all the other parts on the rear needed to get unbolted.
The 82-84 senders are tougher to find. Ive seen people find them on ebay and hawks. I used an aeromotive but that has the pump built in. If you search around this board you may find some recent info on availability/sourcing.
is your sender bad?
Last edited by Firechicken82; Apr 11, 2026 at 07:43 AM.
My sender works but being over 40 years old I dont want to take any chances. I have read people using the ones with the pump and just using the two wires.
Originally Posted by Firechicken82
The 82-84 senders are tougher to find. Ive seen people find them on ebay and hawks. I used an aeromotive but that has the pump built in. Of you search around this board you may find some recent info on availability/sourcing.
Spectra tanks seems to be fine. In fact, my Aeromotive Stealth system may actually utilize a Spectra tank. Their sending units are decent as well. Can't comment on Dorman tanks.
The aeromotive tank is spectra. The only aeromotive parts is the sender/pump. I haven't heard anything about dorman tanks. Id get new straps and rubber insulators.
I got a Spectra tank from a local parts supplier. I spent a full 8 hour day just getting the old tank out with more that a few choice works and even invented new ones. I had the car on my lift, everything lowered and disconnected. Although time consuming getting everything ready to drop the tank, the bigest issue and most frustration was getting the neck out, probably spent 2 hours just trying to work it out. Last tank I did was on my 78 T/A and had the new one in and running in 3 hours. Not looking forward to installing the new one
I had the entire rear end and exhaust system out of the car when I installed my new tank and it went in pretty easy. I'm sure that's how it was done at the factory as well.
Remove the muffler/tailpipes and drop the rear end down as far as you can and it should go OK.
exhaust was completely out, axle was dropped as far as it would go and I still had a lot of trouble with the neck. Im thinking GM may have made slight changes were the neck goes through in later models.
Originally Posted by TransamGTA350
I had the entire rear end and exhaust system out of the car when I installed my new tank and it went in pretty easy. I'm sure that's how it was done at the factory as well.
Remove the muffler/tailpipes and drop the rear end down as far as you can and it should go OK.
Im thinking GM may have made slight changes were the neck goes through in later models.
Definitely not. Same stamping dies for all the body parts for all the years. Mass-produced, engineered once and built about a million times over 11 years in 2 different factories.
It's just imperfections in the replacement parts, coupled with, the gas tank was probably installed into the car on the production line, at some point where something or things that gets in the way when you're replacing it, wasn't on the car yet.
Go visit a vehicle assembly plant someday and you'll see what I mean. EVERY car moves down the line at the same speed. EVERY part is put onto the car as it rolls down the line. The car spends the EXACT same time at EVERY workstation where an operation is performed. The "official" name for this is the "takt time". It's adjusted, within some certain range, as production demands change. It's usually measured in SECONDS, not hours, or even minutes. Now, it helps to ALSO remember that things are already partly assembled when they go into the car. For example, they don't put the seats in before the dash; they don't put the dash in at one workstation, and then the worker lays on their back up under it at the next, putting the harness in, and plugging plugs into stuff that's way up in there; rather, the wiring is ALREADY on the dash, and when they put the dash in, it's like 3 screws and 2 big nuts, zip-zip-zip-zip POWER TOOLS, and then at subsequent workstations they mount the fuse block to the firewall, plug in other "assemblies" such as the HVAC system as they're put in and their plugs appear, and so on. Everything is done in an order such that nothing gets in the way of anything else, and everything goes in, in ... however many seconds it is. Including the gas tank. 43 seconds or whatever it is. 43 seconds per seat, 43 seconds for the rear axle, 43 seconds per brake assy, 43 seconds for the hatch, 43 seconds 43 seconds 43 seconds (or whatever it is).
Learn how mass production works, and how to work WITH it in your mass-produced product, rather than AGAINST it. I suggest the Corvette assy plant in Bowling Green KY as your introduction, since if you're gonna watch cars getting built, might as well be Vettes, eh?? not Escapes or something.
I removed the exhaust system and dropped the rear axle down as low as it would go, removed the gas fill door and the plastic trim piece at the filler neck but it was still a bit of wiggling and twisting to get the tank back in to the car.
It doesn't help when your laying on the floor and working blindly over your head but it is doable.
I replaced the fuel pump and sender, had a plastic liner installed and then I painted the tank before I put it back in, so hopefully I won't have to go there again for a long-long time.
Your probably right but if they made the pass through for the neck just a couple inches larger I would not have created new words
Originally Posted by sofakingdom
Definitely not. Same stamping dies for all the body parts for all the years. Mass-produced, engineered once and built about a million times over 11 years in 2 different factories.
It's just imperfections in the replacement parts, coupled with, the gas tank was probably installed into the car on the production line, at some point where something or things that gets in the way when you're replacing it, wasn't on the car yet.
Go visit a vehicle assembly plant someday and you'll see what I mean. EVERY car moves down the line at the same speed. EVERY part is put onto the car as it rolls down the line. The car spends the EXACT same time at EVERY workstation where an operation is performed. The "official" name for this is the "takt time". It's adjusted, within some certain range, as production demands change. It's usually measured in SECONDS, not hours, or even minutes. Now, it helps to ALSO remember that things are already partly assembled when they go into the car. For example, they don't put the seats in before the dash; they don't put the dash in at one workstation, and then the worker lays on their back up under it at the next, putting the harness in, and plugging plugs into stuff that's way up in there; rather, the wiring is ALREADY on the dash, and when they put the dash in, it's like 3 screws and 2 big nuts, zip-zip-zip-zip POWER TOOLS, and then at subsequent workstations they mount the fuse block to the firewall, plug in other "assemblies" such as the HVAC system as they're put in and their plugs appear, and so on. Everything is done in an order such that nothing gets in the way of anything else, and everything goes in, in ... however many seconds it is. Including the gas tank. 43 seconds or whatever it is. 43 seconds per seat, 43 seconds for the rear axle, 43 seconds per brake assy, 43 seconds for the hatch, 43 seconds 43 seconds 43 seconds (or whatever it is).
Learn how mass production works, and how to work WITH it in your mass-produced product, rather than AGAINST it. I suggest the Corvette assy plant in Bowling Green KY as your introduction, since if you're gonna watch cars getting built, might as well be Vettes, eh?? not Escapes or something.
I removed the exhaust system and dropped the rear axle down as low as it would go, removed the gas fill door and the plastic trim piece at the filler neck but it was still a bit of wiggling and twisting to get the tank back in to the car.
It doesn't help when your laying on the floor and working blindly over your head but it is doable.
I replaced the fuel pump and sender, had a plastic liner installed and then I painted the tank before I put it back in, so hopefully I won't have to go there again for a long-long time.
I suggest the Corvette assy plant in Bowling Green KY as your introduction, since if you're gonna watch cars getting built, might as well be Vettes, eh?? not Escapes or something. 
