• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Gas tank straps 1973 Dodge Charger

Like Nacho said they are the same shape just the ends are backwards. Straps are pretty easy to bend. I've R&Red a gazillion tanks and I think re-bending 71-3 straps would be real easy to do. I don't know of anyone making the 74-9 straps.
Challenger tank is a different shape.
The above listings of tank straps is a real good example of how a lot of people selling reproduction parts don't know what their parts really fit.
 
For the record, M body straps are the same profile as 71-74, and IIRC have the 74 style J bolt locations.

Might be worth a trip to a U-pull yard.

M body cars do turn up around here from time to time (about 1-2 per year in one of 6 yards I frequent)
 
I have looked around for the proper straps with no success, found universal but I really do not like that word. I even called Spectra and they informed they know there is a difference but they do not carry them nor do they plan on making them in the near future.
 
Now that this has come to the top of my memory banks.....

I think I have both a 73 or 74 set and an M body set hanging in my garage.

Let me look.
 
What I learned when I changed my tank is there is no room for error. Zero. Those straps are a precise length, based on precise bends, and if they aren't exact, good luck getting them on.

I bent mine out of shape taking them off, and tried to rebend them into shape as I was installing the tank. That plan was a total failure, I had to stop, rebend the straps so they matched the tank exactly, test fit them again and again until there were no gaps, and only then did everything fit into place.
 
Your J bolts should give about 4 inches of slack to help make the straps conform.
 
Here's an ideal:

Make some homemade J bolts out of some all thread of the same diameter/thread pitch as the OEM J bolts. But make them longer than 4". Maybe 6-8". Use heat to make the bends and to mushroom the end to put a head on it. The longer threads will allow more tolerance for play in the straps. Keep in mind that your deep wall socket will run out of room and you will then have to resort to an open/box end wrench or ratchet wrench to run the nuts all the way up. Once both of the nuts are tighten up on the homemade J bolts take and replace a homemade J bolt with a OEM J bolt one at a time.

Another option on making the home made J bolt is if you have some junk J bolts (from snapping upon removal) laying around, take and cut the hook off then weld it to some all thread or a long bolt, as long as the bolt has threads all the way thru.

Just my 2¢
 
Oh, well. If straps is not the same length... maybe, but being the same lenght I don't think will need that. Just need to be sure about where exactly get the bends.

However I think it should be easy try to get any 74 and lates straps from some JY around! Plymouth, Dodge! Several JY got on line sale sites and could ask.

That's if YY1 doesn't have a set
 
I found 2 sets.

Top one, right?

IMG_20170718_105630.jpg
 
Top one is 71-3.
The deep end of tank is towards the front so that is where the J-bolts are on a 74.
Don't know what the lower one is.
 
Hmmm, thought sure I had a 74 set.

Thought 50% I also had a 73 set.
 
Auto Transport Service
Back
Top