The GM C/K series of pickup trucks from the 70's and 80's with side mounted fuel tanks. I vaguely recall discussing this with someone years ago, but I thought there was a recall. Apparently not, and the tank desgn was used on a LOT of them.

http://jalopnik.com/5513303...explode-and-kill-you

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1984 Fiero SE

Yup, this was the one were NBC had to use an explosive charge to set off a tank fire because it wouldn't happen during their tests...

BUT, I do know of someone who was in an accident and the tank did catch on fire... so it could happen.

J.

I remember riding in the 70's model and smelling nothing but fuel in the cab. Very poor design.

BTW, I owned an '81 chevy 1/2 ton and I had to replace the tank because of rust, but I never had a fuel smell inside the truck. The previous owner installed a inline 6 - 292cu engine. The truck had a lot of power and I kept driving it until the cam gear decided to strip. I should have fixed it.

J.

If you had fuel smell inside the cab it was a pre '73 which had the tanks mounted INSIDE the cabs and behind the seat in the pickups. There is little chance of fuel vapors entering the caps in the post 73's.

The models in question had the "side-saddle" tanks and were never subject to a recall. Did some catch on fire? I'm sure they did. The tanks were exposed on the outside of the frame rails. Other vehicles also had fires with the tanks mounted in the rear. Tanks can rupture, I'm sure that's not rocket science to most people. GM did move the tanks inside the frame rails on the later models. I still drive an '83 with the side saddle tanks and lose not one minute's sleep over their location.

GM did send owners at the time a voucher of $1,000 (I still have mine somewhere although it's expired) good towards the purchase of a new GM truck and that was the extent of the settlement. There was one case that I recall that found in favor of the family of a teenage boy and awarded something over $100,000,000 but it was later overturned.

John Stricker

Brutal. My dad used to drive a late 70s c1500. I believe he picked it up for 600 bucks, drove it for a few years, got t-boned by an old lady, and ended up buying an 89 c1500(not side-saddle)...so, I suppose its not a gauranteed fireball.

My yard plow is that, 79 GMC with duel tanks. On both sides. It hasn’t been on the road since 91 by the inspection sticker but it still has both tanks outside the frame.

Steve

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Technology is great when it works,
and one big pain in the ass when it doesn't.
Detroit iron rules all the rest are just toys.

Weird that Jalponik would dig up a safety issue regarding vehicles last manufactured over 20 years ago, especially in light of the current troubles over at Toyota. Heck even the Dateline NBC story where they rigged the truck with explosives was way back in 1995. Does Jalponik have a motive to deflect attention away from Toyota? Will their next article warn us about how our Corvairs are "unsafe" at any speed?

An old job I worked at had a 77..we used that thing to haul, plow, run errends, tow planes, my son at 2 was sitting on my lap steering it down a runway.......never had a lick of problem with the tank.

Truth of the matter is, almost every GM vehicle these days has fire recalls, almost all of which are now electrically related.

With the advancement of more and more electronic "comfort" devices comes the addition of possible problems.

Isn't it amazing the Fiero was branded "the fire hazard" and sales went out the crapper?? Yet the same can be said for 80% of the GM line in the last 10 years.

Not just GM, nearly all the makes are fighting this issue, for the same reasons.

John Stricker

quote Originally posted by Nebiros88: Truth of the matter is, almost every GM vehicle these days has fire recalls, almost all of which are now electrically related. With the advancement of more and more electronic "comfort" devices comes the addition of possible problems. Isn't it amazing the Fiero was branded "the fire hazard" and sales went out the crapper?? Yet the same can be said for 80% of the GM line in the last 10 years.

when the tanks are inside the frame rail a broken u-joint will let the driveshaft hit the tank. I have seen it happen. Any vehicle that uses gasoline can have a fire.