Fuel tank help - reparable?

If you buy a petcock rebuild kit they usually come with the bolts, and new rubber seal. But yours might need some epoxy too. You should be able to install the kit, instead of buying a new tank.

Bullvine rider!! said:

If you buy a petcock rebuild kit they usually come with the bolts, and new rubber seal. But yours might need some epoxy too. You should be able to install the kit, instead of buying a new tank.

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You can by insert nuts to match the bolts and opoxy them in. Then screw petcock in. Is what I meant by epoxy

Or buy the bigger IMS gas tank, it’s more money but you won’t have an issue with petcock.

Yeah I’ve tried the epoxy thing. What you see is my attempt. When it began to get tight the nuts twisted out. Super annoying as you can imagine

McJohnolds said:

Yeah I’ve tried the epoxy thing. What you see is my attempt. When it began to get tight the nuts twisted out. Super annoying as you can imagine

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Have you tried JB weld? Ive heard of guys using a drill to spin the nut in the hole to heat up the plastic then fill it with jb weld. Supposedly super tight. try that (after its fully cured). If not. Might as well get the IMS tank 🤷🏻‍♂️. But I do see the frustration.

yeah that is JB weld lol
I think I’m going to explore the threaded inserts option.
This isn’t the “plastic weld” product which I just discovered however, so maybe I may try that.
I’ll post an update if I have any positive progress. Maybe it’ll be helpful to anyone else down the road

Bullvine rider!! said:

You can by insert nuts to match the bolts and epoxy them in. Then screw petcock in. Is what I meant by epoxy

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insert nuts? I tried JB welding some nuts in. the remnants are what's visible in the holes where the nuts would be

You would epoxy in the hex shaped nut, and use the petcock screws instead of small screw in pic. Im sure Home Depot will have the right size nuts for stock petcock screw. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Jmo

Bullvine rider!! said:

You would epoxy in the hex shaped nut, and use the petcock screws instead of small screw in pic. Im sure Home Depot will have the right size nuts for stock petcock screw. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Jmo

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Maybe its just easier to get a new tank 😂, if you can spend the money.
Welcome to the sight btw

Get a new Tank. It will never be right using JB weld. JB weld is very brittle and does not expand or contract at the same rate of the plastic. In other words vibrations, the expansion and shrinkage of the tank will cause the inserts to eventually spin. I went thru the same issue about 5 months ago. Spent hours trying to fix it. I ended up wasting my time and purchased a new IMS tank. Save yourself some time and get a new one.

I agree with getting a new tank. If it's the fender mounted t insert nuts, I'll fix those, but I wouldn't try to fix the fuel cock insert nuts, its not worth the risk. And as @Mr. Lew stated, JB Weld is not a good product for this type of repair. I prefer the Clarke tanks myself, and they are cheaper and have more fuel capacity.

yeah i'm leaning towards the replacement tank idea. I may still try the thread inserts. But yeah, it's looking like a replacement tank is in its future...

McJohnolds said:

yeah i'm leaning towards the replacement tank idea. I may still try the thread inserts. But yeah, it's looking like a replacement tank is in its future...

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Let us know how you make out, iether way. I am curious to see if nut inserts work and how long. Remember use a drill to spin the nut and heat up plastic, then fill it with JB weld. If you take that route. But the right way to fix it is get a new tank. Good luck.👍

nothing is gonna work but a new tank. it will leak

Good news. I was able to repair the petcock area.
used a sander and made the surface level and smoothed it all out.
drilled out the epoxy - no black fuel tank plastic was harmed fortunately.

went to Ace hardware and found some rubber expanding grommets that were the perfect diameter. The fuel petcock now torques down to spec. However, there is still a very very minor leak. But I think it just needs some fuel resistant gasket or adhesive and I’ll be solid.

I’ll update with photos when I go back to working on this.

McJohnolds said:

Update. No leaking in 24 hours.
I used permatex 2 slow drying non hardening gasket to seal up the o-ring on the filter. And that seems to have done the trick.
This is with just water in the tank - but apparently it is fuel resistant. So, I think I fixed it. View attachment 153979

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Looks clean too. Nice work 👏. Hopefully it lasts.

Nice job, that will last longer than jb weld.