Fuel tank

so after buying a shitty tank with rust in it ( novice mistanke, should have paid attention to the pics >.>, live n learn) and patching the one i got on er now ( which is starting to seep through a generous patching of JBWeld) im left with only 1 option.. get another :/. i checked the catalog and i wont bring myself to spend more than 4x what my bike cost for a gas tank, i just cant afford it and honestly my inner jew is screaming at me thinking about it xD. by any slim chance would anyone have a 81-81 650/750 tank they'd be willing to get off of for a reasonable price or know of a decent aftermarket tank ( or another bike that i dont know that will fit from) around the interweebs ?

 

Pick one and line it. http://www.caswellplating.com/epoxy-gas-tank-sealer.html
Permanant repair, even for the tank with the JBWeld patches.

 

heres the thing, i used a sealer kit in my current tank when we braised it and it still found a way to seep through :/ my grandfather was suggesting something along the lines of a fiberglass/tiger hair patch kit as apposed to another generous slathering of JBWeld

 

Not all sealer kits are the same. The Caswell kit is one of a few that use the same epoxy that is used to line and repair industrial fuel storage tanks.
As with all surface treatments, preperation is the key to getting a good result. Fibergalss reapairs work, but they are difficult to make look good, and will eventually crack.

 

it was just a 65$ cheap kit from the local parts store, i might give coating it a whirl again if i keep it though the next season. i dont much care about looks atm, its my first bike that i managed to salvage from someone who wasnt gunna ride it for super cheap so asthetics were low priority . but i understand where your coming from, itll be bulky and lumpy in spots, but as long as it holds and i can stop smelling like gas everytime i ride it, ill be happy .

 

I'm about to run POR-15 through my tank. Just finishing up the piece I've made to cover the sender and petcock holes. I'll let you know how it goes. I don't have any perforation though.

 

Waiting for the metal prep to do it's thing. Nearly out of time on that. In the mean time, here are the covers I made for the petcock and sender holes. 1/4" plastic + 1/16" rubber for a good seal. Works fantastically and I used a sink drain stopper from Home Depot for the tank fill hole. I'd be happy to lend out the covers I made if it makes somebody's life a little easier.

 

ive been hearing alot of stuff about that POR15, how'd it turn out for ya?
Side Inquiry any of y'all use quicksteel before? thinking about patchin a weep on my tank with it after watching a bunch ( like 2 hours ish xD) of vids on it but i dont know anyone who's used if on a gas tank personally and am a lil skeptical about basically clay and gas.

 

I found the cleaner did a great job of getting gunk out of the tank. The metal prep did attack the bits of rust, but I would have liked to see more conversion in some places. I went ahead and coated it anyway and I think that went well, except it's really hard to get all the excess out of the tank through the petcock opening. I ended up seeing puddling in the sender opening and used *many* paper towels to sop up the extra. They say the puddling liner can be a problem later, so I didn't want to cause a problem by having that in there.
I did this Saturday and this is the 4th day they say to wait before adding gas. I'll have my intake gaskets today, so I might get fuel in it tonight to try out the carbs hogfiddles rebuilt for me!

 

I've used putty-type epoxy to patch gas tank leaks. As with any epoxy, surface prep is key. It is however, a temporary (a few years at most) repair, but can fail in just a few weeks. You're better off either lining the tank, or soldering the hole shut.

 

+1 for soldering, I've repaired a few pinholes that way. However...if the tank is bad, new pinholes will constantly appear and eventually you will get tired of removing, cleaning, drying, soldering, reinstalling...and want to smash it with a hammer. KREEM tank liner is garbage, a total waste of time and money. I have not used POR-15 or Caswell, but have heard great things about Caswell and plan to purchase some in the near future for a project.

 

just used up some QuickSteel (BlueMagic) that a buddy told me he used to good results, filgers crossed. the reason its the way it is, is because of soldering holes just kept poppin up so we stopped. theres a guy reletivly close that welds tanks that im think aboot talkin to if this fails, depending on price. worst case i got a line on a 200$ tank that looks good inside ( not so much outside but looks are meh atm). hopin for the best. @k-moe im just looking to get it through the saeson so i can further my driving skills, i know its likely temp, but as long as it dont leak eh :3

 

I've got my filgers crossed for you, buddy. Luckiest filgers this side of the Rio Grande, I'll tell you what.

 

the quicksteel seems to be holding!!! its still running chuggy tho, gunna take a look at replacing wires and maybe the coils afte r i swap out the plugs tomorrow( 1 was fouled out and was replaced and its still chuggy so im gunna do the rest to rule them out for the immediate picture)

 

update, it worked! kinda! the last bit of compound i had was getting hot so i rushed the last bit, should have tossed it and made a new ball. but after getting some more and getting it underway again, i rolled over my bike after replacing hte plugs to see if its still chuggy and it started pissing gas and oil out the carb @,@. i think im sticking a fork in er and getting an R6 a year ahead of my schedule. ill post pics once i get them over to my pc.

 

my dad said it might be overfull on oil or the motor is shot. either way its done nickle and diming me ):

 

Float needles aren't sealing. It's not the motor. Easy, but annoying, fix.


You want to know the funny thing about machinery?
They all nickel-and-dime you.
New machines do it up front, then give you a year or two off.
Used machines do it up front, then you just have to stick with the maintainance schedule.
Guess which option costs less.

 

lol i know moe, i know , rather deal with the over abundance of parts and aftermarket stuff in 2 years and get some road time in vs waiting weeks and months for parts and sealings and cleanings ect . for a first bike 100% reccomend older bikes, hands down, but im just tired of tearing it apart after every ride xD, starting to act like a harley @,@ gunna post it on my local cl for 300$ and hope for the best

 

Why not just buy a GOOD tank, and take the carbs to the church of clean, and rebuild the petcock?

YOU, are nickel & diming YOURSELF trying to save a nickel & dime

 

Or, hogfiddles, you could just buy it off him!

 

Smoke less of that VTGanja420 and you might be able to get it running...

 

because theres literally 1 good used tank on ebay for 200$ and the only other tanks i can get are from here for 600+, with that kinda money i can put a down payment on something nice in the 4k range and only have to deal with routine maintenance until something goes and get the part quick and easy, do the work and ride with a bit of peace of mind for once. it sucks being a first time ( legally) rider on a bike that you constantly wonder if its gunna leave ya stranded on the side of the road again. as it is ive torn my carb apart and cleaned, when i mean clean, i mean i could eat off it any day of the week clean 4x before the recent snafu, rebuilt it, un seated, reseated, un seated, reseated to death the carbs. ive never had anything work on something so hard that feels like its working against me in my life. totally was not prepaired to have to pamper this toy like a child xD. and i found out i gotta remove the exhaust to change the oil (also a first for me) which took a routine 30 min job to a 2 hour process of coming up with new creative seca related curse words xD.



-edit- thats the middle gear plug under my exhaust, not the main plug! bullet dodged!

 

i code in 3 languages for fun, ganja is not the problem. ive also had work go into space on the ISS smoking 4-6 grams a day, please stfu about my lifestyle and stick to the topics at hand and leave your archaic 'reefer madness' propaganda speaches at home. kthnxbye ^.-

 

seriously 2 days before my tank started to leak again i was on cloud nine with er. ran strong, amaizing responce ( never rode a shaft bike b4 this one) and even with stock pipes is sounds mean. just jaded at how quick some lil problem leads to near catastrophic engine failure with older stuff @,@

 

Hey, for what its worth, it sounds like you are really close here! I know it sucks to be doing all this wrenching when all you want to do is ride, but on the other side of things, once you're done, you will KNOW exactly where things stand with your carbs, tank, etc. Buying a newish bike might get you on the road now, but who know if you will be doing something similar in a few months with the new one? My neighbor just "upgraded" from a really nice older bike he had to a newer one, only had it for a few months and now there is something wrong with the gears and it will be over 1k just for a shop to look at it (requires splitting the cases)! Have you thought about maybe looking for a tank other than the 750 Seca one? Whatever you choose to do, good luck!

 

I'm pretty sure DrewUth was joking. No need to be so defensive. Everybody here is pretty cool and willing help anybody.

 

That is not the case unless you have an aftermarket 4-1 exhaust on her.
The oil drain plug is right next to the oil filter housing, and both can be removed without needing to remove anythng else.

I recomissioned my Seca just a little over 4 years ago; went though all the trouble and frustration that you are. This is the first year that I have not taken her on a multi-day. multi-state trip, and that's only because the house needed to be re-painted and have some exterior trim repaired, so my solo-traveling budget is nil this year. Keep at' er.


edit ( just saw your edit about the middle gear plug. no need to ever touch that).

 

yep, i found er lol and got baptized in gas and oil @.@ its still got a doggy low rp sputter 2-3k rpm (i replaced all the plugs today aswell). and it feel like its a lil low on oil, all the guide i see say 2500ml ish ( 2 2/3Q) but it sounds like its runnin a lil pingy maybe (not sure if i can post a vid here or if i gotta upload it to my youtube channel and post a link here) but ill work on getting some more info out of er after its cool. took it for a spin now that its runnin well enough to do so.

 

oh!! and JBWeld watersomethingorother *the white compound*(ill look when i hit the garage) is holding on my tank, looks like shit, but aesthetics come later

 

The correct oil level is seen with the sight glass, and cast into the clutch cover is the volume (2500 cc for the sump, plus some for the filter). being low on oil will not cause pinging. Improper fuel mixture, or low octane fuel causes pinging (you don't need to worry about octane; low-test pump gas is what's called for).

You say that you got baptixed in gas and oil. Did that happen when you drained the sump, or was the gas a seperate thing?

 

Let's see ----carbs.........

650- cleaned the carbs once, 15 years ago, still running strong
900 - cleaned the carbs once 5 years ago, still running strong
700 - cleaned the carbs once 6 years ago, still running strong

I can keep listing.......

Point is - clean the carbs the right way, and they'll be no trouble.

Bring it over here, I'll take it off your hands for free.

Dave

 

WARNING!: If you do you might regret it cause hf might post a video of it purring like a kitten and riding it even better.Think about it; or not.

Gary H.

 

I got this 650 tank off someone who started on it I picked up cheap bc the outside is rough the inside isn't bad tho no pin holes and little bit of rust that shouldnt be bad to clean up I was gonna use it on my bike bc honestly the inside is in better shape than what I got on now I'm switching to the 750 so this tank means nthn to me and it sounds like you could use a tank if you want it pm me and we can work something out

 

@dawg: He has a 750 Seca. It'll be a beast if he gets it dialed in.

Gary H.

 

Idk how that just happened phone glitched up on me but yeah I didn't see he had a seca not my brightest moment there lol

 

Fist bump; you were trying to help him.That's what this forum is all about unless the op feels otherwise.

Gary H.

 

k another update, the waterweld is holding and took primer fine! i added an inline filter to stave all gas related problems from my scope of searching. @k-moe it was a mix of both gas and oil ( just did it again today, another 9$ in synthetic oils down the proverbial drain x.x) but i seems to have found the problems with both being in the case. (took a few pics after i tore it down again today to make sure the ethanol gas didnt eat my needles, which ill post up after my explanation) it turns out that i had a broken float arm and it was patched with what lookst o be the watery 2 part dual tube JBWeld! picking up a cylinder of argon tomorrow to Tig it back into place * it looks like it fits beautifully part to part and looks like the weld will take nicely* and one of my pins ( i may have said something about this in one of my first posts) was lost somehow *literally noone went in the garage the day it was apart, seriously poofed @,@* one of my float pins, so my dad fashioned one outta one of his pin gauges (.99 is too tight and restricted some float movement vs the other 3, we went to .94 to match the others) and just brought that to factory spec again. ill post the pics of the carb shit i found after rebuilding it once and cleaning it twice b4 the oil/gas problem and ill post my vid in a new post for the carbs to cut this threads scope back to the original . here they be
as you can see, it reeked havok on em @,@ and put me down 1 1/2 cans of carb cleaner again xD ( also note these are b4 i cleaned the oil sludge and residual shit from everything )

 

for the reccord, the non turbo 650/750 tanks are interchangeable -its on the xj section about the tanks, only reason i know xD- but it dont look bad atall!! you should have seen the pos i got for 65$ off ebay @,@. if my tank give me more problems in the future ill def hit you up on that, keep it stored well! its a nice part

 

They interchange, but your Seca will look a bit odd with a Maxim tank on it. You'll also lose the forward mounting point for the sidecovers since that's on the tank of the Seca, but not on the Maxim.

 

lol i know but as per all older biked and novice repairmen the tank studs are broken off so thats not much of a problem for me, but may be a problem for others.

 

The mounting studs can be repaired. Just which method depends on if the broken parts are in hand or not.

 

lol sadly they were nonexistant when i got er