Ok, I asked for assistance on removing the bed because I planned on cleaning up the frame and changing my fuel pumps. A couple guys asked if I'd post pics. Here's a little play by play and a half *** how to. I'll let some of you who have never done it in on some secrets I learned the hard way.



First, you have to remove the tail lights. To do this, you open the bed, and there are 2 bolts on the inside that hold them in. Disconnect the plugs from the lights and removed the lights. Undo the wiring harness clips and fish the harness down the holes they come up through.



Next, take out the plate lights and undo the clips. Fish the harness out of the bumper and drop it down.



Here is the key right here. Undo the 4 nuts and take the bumper right off. When I first attempted to lift the bed from underneath, I was having a bitch of a time. I then decided to use straps and lift it from above, still had trouble and realized it was the bumper. I was a little worried about taking it off because I didnt' want it all misalligned but it was easy as pie. The bed kept catching on the bumper so as I raised it, it kept pushing frontward and hitting the cab which was bad.

Next post........

 

Here is a picture after the bed is removed, but there is a worm gear clamp that goes around the filler tube that attatches to a small flat tab underneath them bed, you have to undo this. Naturally, you want to remove the three screws that hold the filler tube to the body where you open the gas door.



Next, I pulled the carpet out of the bed to locat the bolts. I used a T50 socket with an impact driver. After soaking the bolts down for about 15 minutes, they came right out no problem. I will caution you, someone mentioned that they are a T52, which Me, nor none of the mechanics that work for me had, and no store around had. The 50 was a bit sloppy but there was no room to slip with the impact driver.



This is what we use in the shop. I never thought there was anything better then aerokroil, but this stuff is really great.

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ok, there is where I ran into a snag and had a little learning curve. I tried to lift the bed with the arms underneath. Turned out, my problem was the bumper. I already had it rigged to come off by lifting it with straps so that's the way I went. I will say that if you are just doing pumps, it's not necessary to actually lift the bed up off the truck. You can just slide it back and have plenty of room, but where I was looking at the frame to clean up, I did it the way I did. All said and done, with some of these tips, I'd say you can have the bed off in just shy of an hour. Mind you, I did this by myself so a spare set of hands would make things alot easier.



Here is what you are looking at removing. You need 5/16 or 8mm socket to undo the tank bolts. Undo the 2 fuel lines and the 1 wiring harness. Pull the assembly off and up through the tank.

This part is self explanitory. Undo the screw that holds the pumps in. Disconnect the lines and harnesses. Install your new pumps, lines, and clamps. The reason I did this was because I wanted to inspect the clamps because of the news of the lines blowing off. I figured if I was gonna do it, might as well upgrade. Guess what. The line that goes from the y fitting up to the tank output was loose. I could spin it right around and if i attempted to , I could have pulled it right off. I used the walbro pumps with a stanless y fitting and worm gear clamps. Here's the assembly ready to go back in.



Now I ran the tank just about out of gas before I did this. I then used my Slurpee machine (awsome tool to have) and sucked the rest of the fuel out of the tank. It wasn't as bad as I would have though but there was a decent amout of water.



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I then painted the axle, some of the suspension, and my traction bars. Nothing fancy, just some rustoleum to clean it up a bit.



All in all, I would say to pull the bed, change pumps, and reinstall the bed...3 hours is a safe bet, although it could be done quicker with help. The job didn't come without consequence. When putting the bed back on, I backed the truck under the bed. The bed must have sagged a bit on the passenger side and the tire caught the corner of the ground affect. My stupidity, I should have checked and if i had an extra pair of eyes, probably wouldn't have happened. Those ground affect are pretty damn flexible I'll tell you. You should have seen what it looked like when it happend, i lifted the bed and it popped right back in shape, aside for the tear, but that's a minor repair.

 

Here are some pics of my other toy. 10 second 91 Hatch.



Here's the interior. It's non street, strictly race so the interior is gutted.



408w with Victor JR heads and intake. Hooker long tubes. MSD Ignition. We just added a NitrousWorks system over the winter to play around with. Dynamic C4 tranny. We tubed out the back and changed some of the frame and suspension to squeeze 28's under there. We run it on street night so it's on E/T streets and actually has mufflers.

 

Very very nice write up . Thanks for the great information.

I might be doing this when I do my pumps. I also want to clean the frame. I may put my Tru Trac in with the bed off too.

 

Nice write up bro! Sux about the ground effect though.

 

Awesome writeup, Talli. Can I post some of the pics on my Web site?

 

no problem at all with the pics.

 

there is actually a major disconnect in the main wireing hareness that is just behind the bumper, about straight even with the left frame rail. If you disconnect there, that is all you have to disconnect, and then you slip the license plate lights out of their holders. Much faster and easier IMHO then pulling the tail lights etc.



And it only took two of us two pull the bed, no lifts or anything. And like i said in the other thread, i wish i protected against scratching the bed


but oh well
-Patrick

 

So the bed was light enough that two people could move it with no problem? Any idea how much your bed weighs? How does it compare to a flareside bed?

Thanks,
David

 

You know, someone else said that but my truck didn't have it. There is a disconnect on the left side, but all it was was the length of wire for the trailor plug that would go down to the hitch. I'm wondering if it was further in down the frame rail and I didn't see it with the spare in the way?

Anyhow, it would be easier but it's less than 5 minutes to pull the lights. Plus you get to clean out all the crap that builds up in there.

 

yea there are two disconnects there in that area, i believe the larger one is the one your looking for, if i remember correctly the trailer harness is like right on the bumper, and the other one is maybe a foot infront of the bumper. And mine was on the outside of the frame rail, so the spare shouldnt be obstructing your veiw.

I do have the shortest 5.5 foot bed, but i wouldnt think it to be just amazingly lighter then the flareside bed. I believe the flare side bed utilizes fiberglass out walls like mine has, which really reduces the weight. And with the tailgate/bedextender gone its pretty light for as big as it is.

I was funny tho it seemed alot lighter coming off then it did when we put it back on, that is after grinding off the hanger bolts, swapping hangers, shocks, bumpstops, and retorqueing all the bolts. even with air tools i was exausted. We actually needed a third person when we put it back on, to make sure the gas filler neck lined up and wasnt getting bent as we relowered the bed.
-Patrick

 

I was funny tho it seemed alot lighter coming off then it did when we put it back on, that is after grinding off the hanger bolts, swapping hangers, shocks, bumpstops, and retorqueing all the bolts. even with air tools i was exausted. We actually needed a third person when we put it back on, to make sure the gas filler neck lined up and wasnt getting bent as we relowered the bed.
-Patrick[/QUOTE]


how did the hangers work out for you. i have them and going to be installing them soon(been saying that for 6+months now )

 

My pumps were changed this weekend as well. The tank was dropped with the truck on stands. Pumps installed. The tank was jacked back into place and re-attached. It took a little over an hour; and, no damage was done to the vehicle. The tank was half full, too. This way is much easier and quicker than removing the bed. No need for that... Unless you're going to clean the frame, I guess.