rusty gas tank

[fj11.5]

i "voluteered" to ride the 30klm into town tonight to by the makings for dinner,, took the 88 in,  she ran perfect for the first 15k,s then started a slight cough, checked fuel before leaving,  more than enough,  so wasnt actually running out ( yet)  kept riding,  about 5 more k,s she started dropping cylinders, uh oh, thinking i had no tools with me i kept her running as long as she would, while looking for a safe place to pull over, , log trucks are running,  dark in 2 hours, lots of wild life, and no phone service,, heading up a short hill and just at the crest she dies, clutch in,  and roll into the shaded driveway,, climb off,  helmet jacket off, seat and side covers off, , tank bolts were finger tight  ,, lift tank, all seems ok hose wise, look at clear filter, , interesting its now a very dark colour inside,, looked in the r,jays tail bag, awesome,  we have some tools, , so filter off and yep you guessed it, its full of rust, worse than when i got it running after four years of sitting, , found a small allen key, and dug out what i could,  tapped out a crap load of crap, blew through the filter till it was clear again, re fitted all parts, switched the bike on a few times to prime carbs, fired her up and away we went, , just happen to have a por15 kit so now i have a use for it, glad she had the filter or carbs would of been extra full of crud and probably not just the small amount they now may have ,, still managed to make dinner before dark 

[FJmonkey]

That was a close call, I know how crappy it feels when the carbs are starving and you know you have plenty of fuel.

[SkyFive]

There's an excellent article on tank rust/cleaning/coating at this website. (He's an prolific motorcycle mechanic and writer, it makes for some good reading)

http://existentialmotorcycles.com/blog/2012/04/01/cleaninglining-a-gas-tank/

[movenon]

A lot of riders forget about that fuel filter when servicing there bikes. I change mine out every spring. With the age of the bikes and the sometimes crappy fuel out there I wouldn't run a bike without a filter of some kind. I had a old BMW with a removable / cleanable filer and that was handy. At least it would keep the big chunks out .
Oh, and glad you found your tool bag in the tail.
George

[Pat Conlon]

Thanks Bryan, that is a great write up on tank cleaning....I'm going to copy and paste the link over in the Maintence files section.

Thanks again!  Pat

[fj11.5]

actually monkey, your fuel tap issue is the first thing i thought of as it was happening, but this beasty is fuel pumped, but the amount of crud that came out im surprised it didnt block the tap, , after this second effort ill be buying a new filter and sorting out the rust,  glad it was an easy enough fix, if i had of taken the tank bag and not the huge rjays bag i would of had to go door knocking for tools  , had only a handfull in there from fixing effies digital gauges

[flick250]

I bought the POR 15 motorcycle kit to fix this problem. I was wondering if anyone has used it. I have watched a lot of things on Utube and there are a lot of differences. Some say to leave the first step in for 24 hours the directions say 20 minutes. Which is right. I had a hard time getting all the gas out of the tank I was wondering how it is gonna go when I put the chemicals in and the sealant. I'm a little nervous about doing this. I was also wondering about how to protect the paint. I was thinking about making plates out of lexon and making gaskets for the sending unit and the fuel shut off. I was also going to tape the whol tank in blue painters tape. Tell me if I'm on the right track or not thanks for your time. I have 1 more question how long do you let it dry and how did you do it. I was going to use a blowe dryer for a day or two.

[movenon]

Go to this site and scroll down a bit. It might give you some idea's . http://www.svrider.com/forum/showthread.php?t=154997&highlight=tank+rust+removal

I have used POR 15 for other projects and it is good stuff. Be aware that anything it touches it stays on.... Wear gloves and cloths you don't care about. Did I say wear gloves ?
George

[flick250]

I have been a lot of research about this because I dont know a bunch about it. watched a lot of u tube videos  and learned a lot. I called POR15 today. I flushed out the tank today brought it home and I made covering material for the fuel shut and the fuel sending unit out of lexan plastic probably 1/8  and put gasket material under it I also bought some plugs made out of rubber for the fuel cap.  POR 15 said it is not a paint remover it might dull it. So I covered all the parts you can see with blue painters tape. POR 15 said I dont need to let it sit as long as a lot of people say Iam gonna let it sit on each side for 2 hours like the can of sealant says and when I am done I can pop the plug and see what I think. Thats for the first step thenwhen it looks good I'll hit it with the second step which they say not to leave in more than 2 hours.  I m gonna start it tomorrow morning I will let you know my results. thanks for the thread sorry about the duplicate post

[movenon]

Good luck. Let us know how it turns out. Did you rear the link that I gave you above ? They used POR 15.
George

[Slick]

What happened?
How did it work?
Where is the update?

[fj11.5]

tank has not been touched since i rode her last time,, been flat out, hope to drain the fuel and dry the tank sunday,, the ol 88 needs some more tlc