Don't Overtighten Gas Tanks

A few weeks ago I was riding my bike on a route that was about 10 miles long. About halfway through, I noticed the smell of gasoline. So, I looked down at the carburetor and couldn't see anything wrong. No gas was coming out of the vent cap on the tank either. I continued to notice the smell at low speeds but didn't think too much of it because I couldn't see anything.

Once I got home, I noticed something dripping on the driveway from my bike. As it turns out, premixed fuel had been dripping out from the studs on the underside of the tank. It was dripping at a rate of two drops per second. I quickly had to get a metal dish to contain the gas. It was a big mess because the whole underside of the tank was soaked along with the whole downtube and CDI. On top of that, gas was dripping right onto the hot cylinder head!

My brother tried to braze the studs, but he ran out of oxygen. I just recently realized why this incident happened. It's because I overtightened the studs to the bike tube. The studs were bent inward. This caused stress on the underside of the tank, which caused a crack to develop around the stud. Basically, the stud bent and tore the metal that it was attached to.

The lesson I learned here is to only tighten the studs enough so the gas tank can't easily move or flip over. I've installed a new tank with this in mind and haven't had any problems so far.

Good thing to do when installing a tank is put some good double sided foam tape between it and the frame to "stick" it in place before your tighten the brackets.

I agree Kevlarr, I also had to braze my tank studs. The sticky foam tape holds the tank well with very little tension on the tank studs.

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i left mine aliittle loose and good thing i was about a mile from home when i noticed air in the fuel line... i was able to tip the tank abit and it got me home...lesson learned either keep the tank adjustable or check the gas allittle more often..

if you're in pinch and you dont have foam tape, a bit of old tubing (bicycle tire air tube) works as well

BGF sent me 2 rubber strips for the motor mounts, didn't use them. tank kept on moving, tried a self tapping screw though the bottom mount, screw sheered. Put the rubber pad under the tank mounts and have had 900 mi with out any problems.

Electricians use a something called 'splicing tape'. It is a thick, tacky and stretchy rubber product that comes on a roll like electrical tape. It can be wrapped around the top bar before mounting the tank. It holds well. It can also be used to keep things like horns, lights,bells, anything that clamps to your handlebars from loosening and rotating. It's not a standard hardware store item but electrical supply houses carry it or maybe you know an electrician who would part with a roll. Bicycle shops sell a similiar product but much more expensive.
Tom

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is this the same stuff as ive always called 5KVA tape??? why would home depot or anything else sell 5000V tape???