Tank sealer

[lownslow]

Gents,
I mentioned to the PO of my Knuck that it looked like the tank sealer was giving way. His reply was "it's been in there for about 25 years, Ive never had problems with it". Well, I was lookin around in there with a flashlight the other day and saw a piece attached but sorta flapping loose. Right tank only. I pulled on it with a pair on needle-nose and man was it tough to get loose. Finally did and ended up with quite a piece. See pics. Looks like a future tank project is ahead. Looked in the left tank and and it's just cracking some, not really letting loose. No junk at the shut off valve. I run clear premium with Marine grade Sta-Bil. Just habit. What ever's available when away from home. I'm wondering if recent additives in pump gas may have helped to break this down as that's what the PO used. I'll go through the receipts to see if I can find what kind of sealer was used. Might be time to install an in line filter. I'm pointing to the cracking which is what is present in the rest of the tanks.

[kevsett]

A top of the line water tank coating system (epoxy, urethane, clear) can last a long time but needs to be replaced sooner or later due to weather, etc. A top of the line gas tank liner coating system also needs to be replaced sooner or later. 25 years seems like a really long time so it must have been failing for a really long time too.

[lownslow]

Kevsett, thanks for the reply. One piece was detached and I pulled on it and finally ended up with what you see in the pic. There's nothing floating around that would block the openings in the fuel valve...well..........not at this time anyway. The paint on the tanks is show quality, ten times better than the paint on my '98. This machine started it's life as a flight red bike and may be returning to that sooner than later it looks like. I think it would be tough to remove them, thoroughly clean and reseal without messin up the paint. One could always try.
Both fenders are pristine as well so repainting and changing the color back was not something I was really wanting to do.

If the paint job was poor and had some scratches I wouldn't mind so much. Well, we'll keep an eye on it closely for now.

[kevsett]

Yeah, the paint job might take a hit during interior coating removal. During the years I worked for an industrial paint manufacturer the best paint stripper we used was methylene chloride based. It also contained MEK and toluene. But the EPA, OSHA and public scare hasn't been good for methylene chloride. Some on here report using various solvents or strippers as well as rotating tanks with beads or other abrasives inside. Good luck.