Hello Airheads
Renewed my 1977 R100/7 with lots of new parts, seals, etc including a "new" to me used tank. First few rides - runs like better than new. Late yesterday a longer ride and it starts stalling out. After much diagnosis determined to be bad gas. Or should I say BAD TANK causing bad gas! I thought I had cleaned it well, but not so.
Had to leave bike where it was, and get a ride to bring tank home. Luckily it was still there this am. I cleaned the tank some what, got some good gas, emptied the float bowls and was just barely able to get it home, as it started stalling again.
So looks like a red material on inside of tank is coming off. How can I best thoroughly clean a tank like this ???
thank!
You may never get all the bits out. Once it starts, it won't stop coming. Obviously, a shake of the tank with a pint of gas and no petcocks, and then allowing it to drain from the 2 petcock fittings will get all the loose stuff. But you'll need to add 2 fuel filters to the fuel lines to prevent future issues.
And you'll also need to drop the floats and use compressed air to remove any bits that may be in the fuel lines which might be about to jam the float valves.
Hope this helps.
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
i put about 250 nuts and bolts in the tank and some seaform shaking shaking shaking and rinsing .......
- There was a product mentioned on these pages, maybe a year ago, which is akin to the OEM Airhead tank treatment. If you are going through the trouble to use abrasives on the inside, a re-coating of the tank might be a good project this winter.
- As a side note... one site (Caswell) that suggests using your metal-object-in-the-tank method, suggests using black dry wall screws. Apparently, their little points will get in the corners better.
- As for middle of riding season, I'd fit 2 filters and finish out the season. Then work on more extensive repairs when there is more time.
All the best
Owning an old Airhead is easy.
Keeping an old Airhead running great is the true test.
I assume you have the fuel screens above the petcocks? (16122307112 strainer) The extreme fix is to have a radiator shop boil it out and reline it. This will require repainting the tank though. There are a couple of treatments that will strip and reline the tank. POR15 is one of them.
I was lucky enough to find my newly painted tank had a pinhole bubbling my paint. Getting it braised then starting over. But in the meantime, I have another tank I'm going to redo. Red liner is coming out and I'm resealing it for added pinhole protection if any are to form. (I know we all have our opinion on liners or no liners). After the liner, do a new paint job.
My method I'm going to attempt is Super Clean with some chain small chain/bolt/other for a few days. Swish around as needed. Once cleaned up, hit it with some Evaporust to etch and eliminate flash rust. Once completely dry, do the liner. I'll report back. Maybe even make a YouTube video, if it works out....
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