tank liners

[mickwinf]

I also tried the bolts method and had a heck of a job getting them out as the 550 tank has a well around the filler to make it harder. Had a quick look tonight and the rust seems to be going so will empty it tomorrow and check.

[SteveW]

I have a rebuilt 1980 RD350LC sitting at home with a completely buggered tank. Someone has put a liner in it at some point in its life and now bits are peeling off and clogging everything up.

Apparently Acetone is good a dissolving tank liners but im worried about what it may do to the paint.

My first attempt this week is to wash it out then fill it with a bit of water and a few nuts and bolts. Then completely wrap the tank in bubblewrap, foam etc and chuck it in my cement mixer for an hour.

One word about Caustic Soda and the like, never add water to it. Always add it to water.

[mike the bike]

Yes, getting the nuts and bolts out took about half an hour of shaking, bending my fingers to impossible shapes and a magnetic pick up stick.  Maybe a length of chain on a wire would be better.

[Trigger]

Easy to get the bolts out, it is called a strong magnet. Only use steel short thread bolts and you will find that the threads pick up all the crap 

[mike the bike]

I shouldn't have used A2 stainless. 😃

[florence]

Fuel filters help a great deal.  I know they don't look great but they are effective.

[Erny]

Easy to get the bolts out, it is called a strong magnet. Only use steel short thread bolts and you will find that the threads pick up all the crap 

Trig, please what do you mean by "short thread bolts"? Can you be more specific - hear type, thread length...
I cannot really imagine shaking - in hand it will be crazy. Putting in conctete mixer too risky was thinking about washmashine but on modern ones you cannot force drum on low speed ..
My 550 has liner inside and starts to degrade strongly

[AshimotoK0]

Easy to get the bolts out, it is called a strong magnet. Only use steel short thread bolts and you will find that the threads pick up all the crap 

Trig, please what do you mean by "short thread bolts"? Can you be more specific - hear type, thread length...
I cannot really imagine shaking - in hand it will be crazy. Putting in conctete mixer too risky was thinking about washmashine but on modern ones you cannot force drum on low speed ..
My 550 has liner inside and starts to degrade strongly

Tumble drier springs to mind ... wrap tank in a soft blanket/duvet

[mike the bike]

A tumble dryer would be better than a washing machine.

[Erny]

Hm. I have no dryer.

[SteveW]

I'm not allowed near the appliances since the missus found a cylinder head in the dishwasher 

[mickwinf]

Ok the flowliner biorust stuff seems to have worked well, it comes as crystals which you mix with water, the size i got made up to 20 litres of solution which they claim to be eco friendly and to be fair it does not smell too bad or give off any bad fumes. I filled the tank to the brim and left it soaking until the following day, and when i looked it looked much cleaner so i altered the angle of the tank to make sure every part was covered and left it overnight. Today i drained it into a large plastic container and then decanted it into 5ltr bottles as it can be used again until it turns black. On inspection with a torch it looks very clean metal with no rust so i dried it out using a hot air gun and then swilled out with diesel. checked again and there are some loose bits still in there so will keep rinsing until its completely clean. I hope this works!

[mike the bike]

If you dry it completely you can use a vacuum cleaner to suck up any loose bits.

[davidrsmith]

When I cleaned my tank out I used a long piece of chain with some nuts tywrapped to the links, this worked quite well but did take a few tries to get to a point where no more rust was coming out. I then flushed the tank out with petrol a few times, then once with diesel.
I put a new petcock on the tank and put a fuel filter inline. I only changed the tank in the end because the original had lots of dents and I couldn't get them all removed before a respray.

[davidrsmith]

Sorry, forgot to mention I had a rod through the centre of the chain which stopped it dropping into the tank. When I put the chain into the tank I put it in so that each end was either side of the inner hump of the tank.