Fuel tank cradle change.

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freelandie71

Active Member
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313
Location
wirral
Not want to hijack the "show of hands for a new cradle" thread, to those that have changed it how did you do it. I have had a look and from my point of view the prop shaft and exhaust will have to be dropped. Ok so far but I can't see how you go about getting out the cradle where it goes in between the sub frame and fuel tank. There does not seem to be enough room to manoeuvre it out without dropping the subframe. So how did you do it ?. Marty
 
I was think about doing this this way as I have a good cradle and the one on mine a 2006 hse has a rotten plate I thought of cutting the welds through and then drop the cradle on the car enough just to slide it out and the other one in and then just tack welding like it is originally. it gets me that mine a 2006 model has this rot on it and yet the wife's a 1998 model does not unless she has been up in the night and swopped them LOL
 
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My 2004 cradle looks much worse than my 99. The bars on the 99 is ok, but the plates was almost gone. On the 2004 the plates are just as bad and the bars are almost rotted away.
 
Hi,

I replaced my cradle a few years ago.
Rear end up on axial stands.
Prop off
Slacken all 4 sub-frame bolts one at a time then screw back in 10 mm.
Lower sub-frame which will rest on original bolt heads.
Wedge tank UP with suitable wooden posts, against sub-frame/ chassis.
Remove all 4 bolts holding cradle in place.
Manoeuvre the cradle out.

I removed the old rusty support plates, and cleaned up the frame, had it powder coated. Bought some stainless steel sheet, used the old plates to make a paper pattern. Transferred the paper shapes to the stainless, cut out with saw and tin snips etc. Drilled / filed holes and even managed to form the 'ribs' using a 6" vice open 10mm and with a very blunt wide cold chisel carefully tapping along.
The 2 panels were then pop riveted back onto the cradle, a spray of wax, been good for 2 years now and still look ok.
(if you google Indian body car repairs you will find many examples of car repairs that they produce miracles with very basic tools).

Hope that helps.
 
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