fuel tank
 

Can anyone point me in the right direction in replacing a fuel tank in an 84 steplift cuddy. I just bought the boat and at the place where I bought it the guys were replacing the fuel bulb before the seatrial. I wondered if they spilled gas in the bilge during the process but not sure. When I looked at the tank through the inspection holes it looked original(metal) and a somewhat suspect to be leaking. Advice?

Dumb question: should I not run it until I find out if there is a leak?

I would definitely wait to run the boat till you know if the tank is leaking or not. Your life could depend on it. As far as the tank itself do a search, there have been alot of threads regarding gas tank issues. If you are interested in a 40 gallon tank, Ebay seller Greatlakesskipper has a couple for $129 + shipping.

FWB how much fuel do you think the tank has in it? Full? Half? 1/4?

Welcome to the site.
 

Scoot it (the boat) out with the garden hose, remove the plug, wick the bilge out or dry with a wrag then start looking for accumilations of fuel in the bilge.
Most likely, you can repair it but this will involve removing the tank.
If it is leaking replacing it will be inevitable but a patch might buy you some time.

Like said above clean and dry the bilge and then look for signs of a leak?? If you find nothing then you could get the tank pressure tested to find out for sure.
If you have to take it out, its not going to be fun!! Lots of work and a new 60 gal tank will be $500+ so if you don't have a need for 60 gal you might want to ck out the 40 gal thats a nice price!!!!!

CAREFUL about the pressure test. Usually 3-5 psi is all the pressure added to check for a good tank.

thanks
 

switching to a smaller tank may be a good idea as I fish alot inshore/nearshore

Figure 10.5 gallons per hour to 2.5 miles per gallon at best running capabality.
If you're going to the CAT reef, 40 gallons would be a good size to leave room for error.

I filled the tank when I got it home before launching. So, it's sitting pretty tied up to the dock with a quart of live shrimp and mud minnows in a bait bucket hanging from the back cleat....fish or possible death by explosion? Guess i'll try to dry it out and observe. Does anybody have a ballpark figure on what the average fiberglass boat repair man charges to do the job of tank removal and replacement?

Where you at? Kilkenny, Ft. McCallister or somewhere else?
This would be a good project to do yourself. There are couple of threads on replacing the floor tank if needed. No it ain't easy but it will work or not, nothing inbetween.
First pull the boat out and determine what's going on.