D'oh! I have to switch tanks.

First, the crappy part. I rode my VFR to class this morning, and as I was walking away, I heard the dreaded sound of bike falling over. For some reason, it rolled off of its side stand. Now I have no idea what enticed it to roll forward, but the only thing I can come up with is that I must not have had the sidestand all the way forward when I parked it. In my 3 years of riding, I have never had this happen - this must have been the one time I didn't double check before walking away.

But it gets worse.

Parked to the left of my bike was a recently repainted Suzuki Marauder. My bike fell right onto it. I ran back to pick it up, parked it (on the center stand this time), and shoved the mirror back into place. I had to get to class, so I didn't give it a good look over. After class, I came back and noticed that the left side of my once mint tank had two huge dents next to the reserve switch. This part fell straight into the foot peg and brake pedal of the Marauder, which had nothing but a small scratch in the back of the front fender. I knew the kid that owned the bike, and he seemed more upset about the damage to mine than the tiny scratch on his, which made me feel a bit better.

Luckily for me, we scored a complete parts bike from Arizona complete with sun damaged plastics about 2 years ago. It has been disassembled in the shed ever since. Surprisingly, the tank is very straight and only has a small chip out of the silver on the left side.

Now for the question.

What do I need to do to prep the extra tank for the swap? After a quick look inside of it, I saw nothing but clean bare metal (we drained it before putting it up). Is there something I should wash it out with? Gaskets and lines I need to check? I really want to get this fixed soon. It makes me sick to look at what I did to my poor bike.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

Sorry to hear about the fall, but hey I'm working on this on an 86 tank right now!

It sounds like it is in great shape, but it couldn't hurt to pour some Acetone in their to loosen up anything that may be inside. (maybe just a quart or so). slosh it around a little, let it sit a while, and then repeat. Drain out whats left in it, let it dry overnight and your tank should be good to go!

 

Sounds like your in good shape, maybe flush a bit of fuel through it and go.

 

You might want to change the o-ring on the fuel sensor- Arizona might have dried up that o-ring after twenty- some odd years.

 

-UPDATE-

The tank from the AZ bike is in way better condition than I thought it was, but its not perfect. There is a small chip on the left side in the silver, and the caution sticker above the filler cap is baked to a crisp by 20+ years of desert sunshine. Definitely not as good looking as the decal on my primary tank, which was almost transparent. Any thoughts on covering, removing, or restoring this sticker?

The tank is on and the bike is running, but I still have all of the fairings off. Apparently, the fall shoved the entire front fairing about 1/4 to 1/2 inch to the right, enough to where the clutch reservoir hits the windshield every time I turn the bars right far enough. The fairing and gauge cluster wont push back to the left easily. Is there any way I can try to bend the fairing stay back to where it was? It's probably hard to answer without being here, but maybe someone has had this happen to them before.

 

Gen 2 fairing stay is a bitch to get back into place, mirror mounts will give you fits after it is damaged .

 

Thanks toe. Thats not what I wanted to hear, but I'll see what I can do. Any tips to make it less bitchy?

 

How is the one on your parts bike?

 

I thought of that, but thats more of a last resort right now. I'm at school and the bike is 2 hours away in my hometown. I'd prefer to fix it with what I have if I can and avoid a drive to tear the part off and bring it back.

That said, how difficult would it be to replace the fairing stay?

EDIT - After looking at the drawing in the maintenance manual, id say it looks pretty complicated. A bunch of bolts and wires to deal with. Thoughts?

 

You are gonna have to tear something down to get in aligned right, might as well do it right the first time is my motto.

 

Good news everyone! My bike is back together and fully operational! The mirror yanked back into position way easier than I thought it would, and the fairing stay needed no further adjustments!

As soon as I fill the paint chip in the tank and remove the old ugly caution sticker, she'll be back to where she was before the stupid incident.

 

I don't want to be a smart arse, but this is a good time to remind ppl to put there bikes hand brake on so it wont roll forward of the stand.

 

Dude, I cant tell if you are trying to be helpful, or just being a jackass. But if somebody learns from this, and fewer bikes are dropped in parking lots, then I guess it was worth something.

 

hand brake= first gear A bike can't roll forward if it's left in first gear

 

I knew what you were saying, just wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic about it. Thanks.

 

A few questions

The new tank looks good and is working great, with one exception...the reserve light does not come on anymore. How hard of a fix would it be to switch the reserve sensor from the old tank into my new one?

Also, I attatched a picture of what remains of the warning sticker on the tank. Anybody have any ideas of how I could easily remove what's left of it? I need to fill that chip in too.



The first picture on the left is the old tank after the fall.

Thanks!

 

Not tough at all, drain gas from the tank, remove four nuts at the sensor, I would replace the oring while you are in there and swap it out. Easy parcheesi.

 

Thanks Dookiedook, at least it is an easy fix! Now to get an o-ring...