Cleaning fuel tank

[wil]

Hi all,

I have a 71 early bay running a stock 1600cc. After fitting twin carbs I had a host of problems chasing from one carb to the next with very small amounts of dirt causing the problems. I fitted a filter king in the engine bay (stock filter above gear box too) so I could see what was happening & it became quite dirty quickly. I thought the filter king would stop any dirt that the stock filter couldn't.

After running out of fuel on a trip I refueled with the can of fuel I had in the van (Fuel gauge has stopped working too) but nothing came through to the filter, after some vigorous rocking of the van some fuel came through. I thought that the tank would need to be replaced so I set about removing the engine & fuel tank. Now the tank is out it appears to be rust free but i can see lots of small 'bits' on the base of the tank. I also had those brocket(?) balls in the tank which I have now taken out. What else could be causing this? Have i filled up somewhere with dirty fuel? The main filler hose from the cap to the tank will need replacing, maybe this has been deteriorating & depositing bits into the tank.

I really expected to see a lot of gunk in the tank after the refill wouldn't come through but it doesn't look that bad.

Anyone here cleaned out their tank? What did you use? Is there any filters/mesh in the tank that need replacing?

Thanks in advance

 

[Todster]

Hi Wil,
There should be a filter gauze in the take off tube at the bottom of the tank, if you undo the nut, the gauze should be there. It is a long sleeve that fits up into the bottom of the tank.
I have just had my tank out and used the POR tank sealing kit. Followed the instructions using their 'cleaner degreaser' that can be diluted 1:1 with hot water, then rinsed, then used their 'metal prep' to prime, followed by their 'tank sealer', took quite a bit of work, but the end result was pretty good.

Have a look on my thread here for before and after piccys: http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58447" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers
Mark

 

[wil]

Hi Wil,
There should be a filter gauze in the take off tube at the bottom of the tank, if you undo the nut, the gauze should be there. It is a long sleeve that fits up into the bottom of the tank.
I have just had my tank out and used the POR tank sealing kit. Followed the instructions using their 'cleaner degreaser' that can be diluted 1:1 with hot water, then rinsed, then used their 'metal prep' to prime, followed by their 'tank sealer', took quite a bit of work, but the end result was pretty good.

Have a look on my thread here for before and after piccys: http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58447" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Cheers
Mark

Hi Mark, thanks for the reply, good to know about the gauze filter will have a look at the weekend.

Great rebuild thread by the way!