Hi
The older Citroen Dispatch, Peugeot Expert and Fiat Scudo pre 2006 also require the tank to be dropped to do any bracket work under the floor of the van.
My son's van (53 plate Peugeot Partner 800LX) has a half height steel bulkhead with upper mesh which means you can't get to the front fixing bolts with the tank in place.
So the tank strapping is made in 2 parts. This allows the front strapping to be fitted and secured without the tank being in place. Then the tank can be fitted in and the remaining part of the strapping bolted in to secure it all in place.
You will notice on the Berlingo van that a plate extends the van floor to cover the footwell in what is the passenger vehicle's rear seating area. We drilled 2 holes through this plate, 1 for each of the tank straps which can be bolted up using spreader plates underneath. This is accessable from inside the driver and passenger compartment. It does make it easier if you don't have a bulkhead. If you are confused, just look behind the drivers seat at the space where the jack is housed.
On son's van his rear brackets are secured with bolts through the floor using spreader plates outside. (I have drawn the spreader plates running in the front to rear direction, but I can't remember if they are fitted this way or across the width of the van from left to right - it was 3 years ago we did this.) This are accessed from outside under the van and must be at the rear of the fuel tank. You can guage where you are by looking at the ridge patterns in the inside of the van floor and finding their equivalent position from underneath.
We made another bracket out of the same material to go across the width of the tank to stop it moving sideways. This is a problem as the fuel tank is in the way. We solved this by using nutserts into the floor, carefully drilling to ensure we didn't damage the tank. There is a small gap between the floor and the top of the tank. We were also careful to ensure that the bolts were just long enough to tighten the brackets up but short enough to not come in contact with the top of the tank. We felt that nutserts were ok as these brackets were only going to stop any side ways movement of the tank and would have little to do in a front or rear end accident. The 2 main straps are the most important ones in any accident.
If your van doesn't have a bulkhead fitted, then the 2 main securing straps can be made as 1 piece each and not in 2 seperate parts as we have done.
Please use high tensile bolts and nuts for all securing points.
This applies to the previous model Berlingo/Partner vans up about 2007. I am not sure if this applies to the current Berlingo/Partner vans on offer with PSA.
As always, you follow these instructions at your own risk.
Spruce
