1973 L-82 4 spd
Sorry this reply is a long time coming. Some family health issues really limited the time I could spend. Long tale short - I never was able to completely remove the tank. The tank actually looked in great shape,but found cracks around the three tubes on the tank. Cleaned the surrounding areas to bright bare metal and applied some JB-Weld. Was able to spray paint the cleaned/repaired area. Tank now holds vacuum.
What I removed to try to extricate the tank: 3 attached hoses, front wheel, side louver, screws from 3 brackets attaching the tank, master cylinder (no power brakes), clutch pivot shaft retaining clips - both ends. The clutch rod from the pedal still interfered. Looked like even with that removed there was a good chance the steering column would interfere. I gave up trying to completely remove the tank as I was able to wiggle it around to access the area where the hoses connected and I was pretty sure that was where the problem was. As I noted, once repaired - good old JB-Weld, the tank now holds vacuum. I decided to declare success, vacuum problem solved.
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