Reply to "Gas tank fitting"

As far as plugging the hacked hole in your tank, obviously the RIGHT way to fix it is to remove it & have it welded or brazed. For a TEMPORARY fix, (after all the extra lines & fittings are removed, of course), wire-brush the area around the hole in the tank until its clean & shiny, then lay a washer that is larger than the hole on top. Finally, mix up a quantity of BONDO and liberally cover the washer including the hole thru the washer. Get plenty around the edges of the washer, too. Garden-variety Bondo when cured is totally fuel-proof and will certainly fix your tank until the next engine rebuild, when you can pull the tank & have it professionally fixed. My tank has such a hole, that I Bondo-ed in 1999.... What likely happened is, rust perforated the stock fuel-out pipe located inside the welded boss on the rear top of the tank, Or, the stock line inside still has the unservice-able nylon "sock" on it, and its plugged with 32 yrs of varnish. If this is true, you may be able to make this pipeus eable again, by reaching in thru the fuel gauge sender hole with a long rod and tearing the sock off the end of the fuel-out pipe. Don't make any sparks while doing this, obviously, and its best done after totally draining the tank. The drain plug is usually extremely tight requiring an air-impacxt wrench- be careful not to crack the thin metal around the drainplug, or just siphon all the gas out.