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Fuel tank leak ('58 wideline 99)

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After 6 months use I found a gradually worsening smell of petrol in the garage where I keep the Norton. The Bantam and the motor mower were innocent - there was a dampness under the Norton's tank towards the back. I drained the tank and investigated. A thin layer of epoxy or fibreglass resin came away easily and revealed this hairline fracture.  I'm thinking of taking the tank to the Norton open day for advice ..

fuel tank

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I recently soldered over a crack.  Use flux designed for steel (not all fluxes are) and a blowtorch with lead-tin soldered.  Seems fine so far.  Obviously tank must be clean and dry and empty of gas.  Mine was in a hot sunny garden for several days with the cap open.  Previous Epoxy patch (JB Weld?) came away in a lump.

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hello,

the split looks as though it would weld / braze ok, but there looks to be lots of pin holes surrounding that area. they are more difficult to seal . safety at all times.

barry

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... if those are pinholes. If I was soldering I'd use plumber's solder which has a semi-molten state allowing you to form the solder rather than tinman's which changes from liquid to solid virtually instantaneously. Baker's fluid would be my flux of choice here.

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Thank you for the thoughts - the temptation was to just clean it up and put on JB weld but given that it will always be in contact with petrol and the vibrations that it needs to put up with I have a feeling that I would end up having to repeat next year. This is the first bike I've had with a 'placed' strapped tank and I need to be more careful when refitting it so it sits on the rubbers properly and doesn't touch the frame metal to metal.

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... joined a couple of well prepared bits of mild steel, gave it a good 48 hours to cure and submerged them in a jamjar of E10. After a couple of weeks the JB weld had gone rubbery and could be peeled off.

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After some serious cleaning, I took my Norton  tanks to the local welding expert who used a gas torch and Silver Solder to repair the cracks. I had to stress relieve the ends of the crack lines with small drilled holes. The repairs Worked fine on both a petrol and oil tank.

As Ian points out above, JB Weld is very susceptible to Ethanol damage. Joining most Epoxy goos as not effective any more for repairs to most motorcycles.

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My Dad soldered the tank of my old 1955 '88' in around 1963 and it's still intact! To my mind people dwell too much on welding or brazing.  Much simpler and easier to use plumber's solder (or silver solder as Phil suggests, but not really needed) with Baker's Fluid - like wot my Dad always used in his job as an Auto-electrician. There wasn't much else available in those days. My next choice would be brazing, but never welding as it can do more harm than good.

 



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