'Pinhole' in bike petrol tank

[chunkolini]

Yep.
tenere issue no2.
We spotted a small blister in the paint on a seam on the tank of my new bike.
Someone did mention a product that should deal with this. Anybody got any ideas?
I have heard of araldite being used.
At the moment I'm interested in the bike not having a row with the vendor.
That may come later

 

[8ob]

Had a pinhole in a Triumph petrol tank, washed it out with detergent and tinned/soldered up the hole. Lasted another ten years and was still good when I sold it.

Bob

 

[angellonewolf]

can you not weld it ive done a few mower tanks would think its thicker metal

before trying you need to make the tank safe not just remove the fuel

 

[Yamhon]

There is a product called liquid metal, there may be different brands. I picked one up awhile ago for my own bike tool kit.

 

[Yamhon]

This is the version I have. Bought it maybe 12-18 months ago when I wanted to get into adventure riding and bought it on recommendations from adventure riders on YouTube. Not used it before, but seems like a decent product for small repairs.

It'll save purging the tank.

 

[stuvy]

Iv welded a few bike tanks and an old chap showed me a great tip

Get an old car as in ore car exhaust. A rag and a hose pipe(no you don’t need to do that just yet...) put the pipe in the tank for ten mins and it will remove the fuel left over to be safe to weld.

Iv also used a petrol mower to do the same when no old car was about

 

[Robotstar5]

I used a tank repair kit from Frost automotive https://www.frost.co.uk/por15-motorcycle-fuel-tank-repair-kit.html. although it was a lot cheaper in the 80's

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I used a tank repair kit from Frost automotive https://www.frost.co.uk/por15-motorcycle-fuel-tank-repair-kit.html. although it was a lot cheaper in the 80's

Beat me to the link but it's showing 'Out of Stock' - other suppliers are available

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/POR15-Fuel-Petrol-Tank-Repair-Kit/27031284830

 

[angellonewolf]

• when you say pin hole wwas it hit or rusted through if you got a weep now lightly to get worseif rusted

 

[dobbslc]

Whatever you do make sure if you fill it with some kind of sealer that it's ethanol proof!
Unfortunately a paint job can hide a thousand sins! It might be that the tank looked fine but being transported to you has knocked something and its now leaking. They usually go at the lowest point on the left side due to water sitting at the bottom of the tank when parked on the side stand. Hope you get it sorted chunkolini

 

[Bill Edwards]

If it's easily removed from the bike then there are sealers than you slosh around inside the tank to seal it, however with modern fuels containing so much ethanol I have concerns about whether they'll last, or whether they'll flake off and clog things for evermore...

Welding or brazing is a reliable option but not always practical.

Leak fix from plastic padding is a product I've had success with on many things and will work well, provided you get it dry and clean of paint and rough up the surface of the tank with course emery to make sure it has a key.

Stuff like araldite, epoxy etc is probably up to the job, and people certainly get away with stuff like that, but just how long it'd last with petrol I have no idea. Maybe for ever, maybe only a couple of years?


Assuming you don't want to remove and weld, braze or solder the tank I would go with leak fix by plastic padding:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180ml-PL...119301&hash=item5b44452b1b:g:kqYAAOSwN5BakBKs

 

[brightspark]

easy enough to soft solder as long as its well cleaned up I did a pinhole in the bottom of a 5 gallon jerry can I had just filled turned it over while it was full cleaned and fluxed and just heated my big copper soldering iron up on the gas ring and tinned it job done

 

[500e]

http://www.quiksteel.co.uk/
Don't know if works but another site that seems to suffer serious rust corrosion say it does.
There seem to be a few people making it or similar

 

[Robotstar5]

easy enough to soft solder as long as its well cleaned up I did a pinhole in the bottom of a 5 gallon jerry can I had just filled turned it over while it was full cleaned and fluxed and just heated my big copper soldering iron up on the gas ring and tinned it job done

It was only when your feet got wet you realised the cap seal had failed too

 

[Gareth J]

Tek screw?

 

[Greeves246]

I've done several tanks successfully with Caswell, had to be Caswell as they were fibreglass and most sealants only work with steel or aluminium. Petseal2 is good but make sure it isn't old stock as the original Petseal isn't Ethanol proof. Quite a few people who did tanks some years ago found the introduction of unleaded with 5%Ethanol broke it up. Greeves 246

 

[Stuart M]

Repaired a pinhole leak on a Harley petrol tank last weekend at a race track using araldite as it was all we had to hand...It worked and lasted the meeting, I wouldn't like to call it a permanent repair though...

 

[fixerupper]

I've used some stuff called Petropatch on a tank years ago it worked fine ....

 

[cheb]

My reservation about using chemical sealants is what additives might be in future petrols that will react with the sealer. POR15 used to be the ne plus ultra of tank sealants yet the ethanol in current fuel causes it problems.

I'd get it welded/brazed/soldered, as I had to do with a TDR250 tank recently. It was also pressure tested after being repaired.

 

[brightspark]

My reservation about using chemical sealants is what additives might be in future petrols that will react with the sealer. POR15 used to be the ne plus ultra of tank sealants yet the ethanol in current fuel causes it problems.

I'd get it welded/brazed/soldered, as I had to do with a TDR250 tank recently. It was also pressure tested after being repaired.

bet that was only at a couple of psi . last one I saw tested it went like a balloon