Fuel tank leak ('58 wideline 99)

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.

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

... 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.

... 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.

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.

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.