TOPIC:

Yes thats right, the low down dirty, filthy, rotten
bear huggin trash. I thought it was carb, cleaned
those, thought it was fire, getting ready to
do the coil mod, when inspiration struck, how about
check that petcock and thirty year old tank. backfire
through carbs, been there, sooty plugs been there, hell Im begining to think half of this site could be solved
with a good tank cleaning. Take out the trash! good
fuel,good fire and clean air, if you dont believe it take out your petcock and pour your precious fuel into
the wifey's best crytstal, she will love ya for it, mine did, but ya just might find what ya lookin, for.

Had a neighbor once who filled his Honda gas tank with water and rocks trying to get the rust and crud out. I found him out in the lawn making a hell of a lotta noise one sunny day and asked him what he was up to. He was shakin that tank like no tomorrow and then looking inside it. He claimed his "friend" told him this would work. I got the concept but rocks and water?

Morale of the story: You never know what the previous owner (PO) has done to the bike. There may still be gravel rattlin around in there!

I think it might be an old thing, not to open that can of worms, but oddly enough my father told me the same thing.

I used a box of drywall screws to clean out a BSA tank. Just used them dry - what a racket - ended up paying my son a few bucks to shake it for me (he's older and smarter now, I'll have to do my own tank cleaning from now on)! Rinsed it out with hot soapy water then sloshed it with rubbing alcohol. While my wife was out, I placed it filler neck down over an air conditioner vent and dried it out. Looked almost like new inside.

I put a small chain and a bunch of nuts and bolts in mine and taped up the openings. Then I wrapped the tank real good with thick towels and put it in the dryer on a no heat cycle for about a half hour (you might want to wait for your wife to leave first ). This worked well for removing the big rust and gunk and saves your arms. After that I filled the tank with a mixture of phosphoric (spelling) acid and water to get what was left. The phosphoric acid also keeps the tank from flash rusting when your done. There are several good threads here about this. Also, don't forget an inline fuel filter.

neilage66 wrote:

Had a neighbor once who filled his Honda gas tank with water and rocks trying to get the rust and crud out. I found him out in the lawn making a hell of a lotta noise one sunny day and asked him what he was up to. He was shakin that tank like no tomorrow and then looking inside it. He claimed his "friend" told him this would work. I got the concept but rocks and water?

Morale of the story: You never know what the previous owner (PO) has done to the bike. There may still be gravel rattlin around in there!

my friend used fishtank gravel and some stuff like wd-40..it took some shaking but his tank come out looking like new. this is just one of many methods for cleaning tanks.

Oil and fishtank gravel which is semi-smooth and clean sounds like a much better idea than gravel from the driveway.

My neighbor was a nice guy but as some people say "not the sharpest tool in the shed" so I had my doubts about his methodology. Sometimes I'm not the smartest either...like the time I...uhhh...never mind!

After hearing all your comments and experiences, I have a higher respect for my old neighbor, even if he was using road rock.

Post edited by: neilage66, at: 2006/04/23 22:58