Fuel Tank R&R

I'll admit it up-front. I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS WHEN THE ENGINE WAS OUT!

I simply ran out of steam after weeks of cutting, welding, painting, and undercoating.
All of that was just the underside of the van. The engine was being rebuilt and I had the
perfect opportunity to remove and clean-out the fuel tank. But I didn't. What I did do
was I removed the outlet of the tank and flushed it several times with water. Then I
emptied it and left it open to dry overnight. The "sock" on the output fitting was
dirty, but not any more than you'd expect in a thirty two year-old vehicle.

The van has not run well and I've had many fuel filters full of reddish-brown
crap to show for my error. I've had to clean the carburetor numerous times and even
with a clean carb and new filter, the engine would die as I was accellerating in third
and top gears. Having emptied the tank, I now know why.

One thing I really didn't want to do was to pull the engine again. Necessity being a mother,
I decided to try to get it done with the engine in place. I read online that it could be
done, but you'd need to lower the engine/transaxle in order to get the tank out. Not so.

In my case, (2 Liter engine with a single, center-mount carb) I managed to get the tank out
after only removing the carb. It's a VERY tight fit.