Gas tank woes...

mckutzy

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My buddy has an old gas tank from a tiller...
We got it setup on now his chopper (I sold it to him about a year back)...
The tank is soldered in halves, about the center, it however has an apparent leak on the belly about an inch as far as we can see.
I have the ability to solder it with a copper... which I have much experience with just not on a tank...
But we're thinking maybe go an epoxy route...
 

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anickode

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Those tinplate tanks can be tricky. Once they start leaking, they can definitely be resoldered, but you have to get it clean clean clean. The biggest hurdle is if it has corroded in between the lap joint. You'll often have to heat the entire tank to melt the solder and split it, clean up the joint, use a proper flux for bare steel, and re-tin the sheet metal, then put it back together. Always use a softer lead based solder for this sort of work as well. Lead free plumbing type solders are too brittle under vibration.
 

mckutzy

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Well the galv can is already tinned at the joint, hence is was soldered already. I did get the outside cleaned up and soaped down with a pressure test with a hand bike pump.

I found a rubber bung with a small hole in it, it mated well with a sports ball air filling needle.
It was under size, so I wadded up a shop towel around it and taped it on for a seal.
I wetted it down with some dish soap and slow pressure to find the leak...
I also checked and cleaned the petcock if that was an additional leaking source, but not so.

It bubbled and revealed a tiny tiny pin hole. The rest was in very good shape...

I was going to use the hand copper with the forge to solder, but I cant seem to find any locally available Sal Ammoniac tinners block. I used to use this for when I made all the hand soldered products at the sheet metal factory I used to work at... But theyre retail store doesnt sell it anymore.... It helps to tin the sharpened copper after being heated, cleaning off the oxides and allowing it to accept the layer of solder onto it...

With this being said... I resulted to trying my electric soldering iron, and my pinetree resin soldering flux. and it worked....

I heated with the heat gun to dry it off from soaping it down. Dabbed on some resin and used some 50/50 solder.... IT actually worked, somewhat decent looking too.
I did another soap test.. no bubbles.... NICE....
Only leak was from the bung at the needle...
Been kinda bugging me all night on how to get this fixed...

Later Ill see how it works out on the bike.... But at least I got this now under my belt.. good times...:wai::wai:
 

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mckutzy

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Thanks, I thought so too..
Its normal to use air to test leaks in gas tanks for motorcycles and such like that.. In my case I didnt want to potentially damage the tank by blowing it up with a higher pressure amount from the compressor...
The bike pump, is all it really needed...
 

ol'joe

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Those tinplate tanks can be tricky. Once they start leaking, they can definitely be resoldered, but you have to get it clean clean clean. The biggest hurdle is if it has corroded in between the lap joint. You'll often have to heat the entire tank to melt the solder and split it, clean up the joint, use a proper flux for bare steel, and re-tin the sheet metal, then put it back together. Always use a softer lead based solder for this sort of work as well. Lead free plumbing type solders are too brittle under vibration.

Well, DANG! Seems like you have soldered stuff once or twice before! :) It is a rare skill in today's world and we are worse off because of it. I hope you spread that knowledge around to every youngster you can get to hold still long enough to learn it. Not just a few planes have fallen out of the sky because nobody knows how to solder wires together any more.....Joe
 

landuse

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Well, DANG! Seems like you have soldered stuff once or twice before! :) It is a rare skill in today's world and we are worse off because of it. I hope you spread that knowledge around to every youngster you can get to hold still long enough to learn it. Not just a few planes have fallen out of the sky because nobody knows how to solder wires together any more.....Joe

I was 30 before I taught myself to solder. I had decided to make myself a metal detector from a kit had bought. Soldering the board was fun :D

Youtube was my friend back then in teaching me :D
 

mckutzy

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I recently bought a block of sal amoniac..
When I get a project going for this.. I'll show a litte write up on it..
Old school soldering like this is pretty neat, and once you have the hang of it, it goes pretty good.
 

mckutzy

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So my buddy says to me that he thinks there is a leak on the carb or somewhere on the motor... He smells gas... I take a look at it... and sure enough there is some seepage along the join where I had epoxied the area....
We removed gas and the tank, and I take a better look at what the issue is... The one end had flaked slightly, and thus it delaminated. Peeled off in a flake....
I guess not enough cleaning, roughing, mixing, incompatibility ect... Not sure...

So Im back to doing it old school. Sal block, hydrocloric acid, copper and solder.
I guess well see what happens....Again.....

Before I was going to start, I needed a handle for the copper. I just found a piece oak and whittled out a make-do handle... shaved it down with the rasp and files.... bored a hole and slapped it together.... Then it really got hot out....
I need to epoxy it, but Im also not really in a hurry to light the forge when its like 32*c(~90f) out here...
Already sweating my bag off...
Ill see if my buddy wants to help later when its cooler...
 

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mckutzy

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I managed to get the tank soldered, didn't take much and went fairly quick.
My little forge it pretty hot for this job, like a little too hot.

The copper, I had to tin it several times to even go at all..
Oxidized very quickly...

I got it cleaned and pressure tested...
Checked out seemingly fine.

We also inline mounted it on the backbone of my Buddies bike.
Overall pretty good...

Now we have some other problems with the gov... I reckon it might have something to do with the fact he had a minor fall off his bike...

I'm going to make a new thread on the motor threads pages...
 

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