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Fuel Tank leaks :-(

Matt Crawley

Matt Crawley

Husqvarna
AA Class
Hey All.

Had a bunch of fuel leaking from the top of fuel pump. I thought it was just the fuel pump gasket but after replacing the gasket it continued to leak thru cracks around the mounting hardware.

Also check out the crap in the gas tank. :banghead:

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JB Weld WaterWeld.

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Finished product.
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I think I'm still going to look for a replacement tank. This one seems extremely crack prone.


Matt
 
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Seemed like the patch might hold but riding around in the heat today and it started leakign again. Next step is going to be a replacement tank. :mad:

I will post details on availability and pricing as I get them. Used tanks are on ebay right now for $200-$300. I will check the price of a new tank thru husky.


Matt
 
did you check with inmate MyRedStrom over on advrider if he still has his used tank? He has sold the parts of his Terra for about 50% of the new prices which should be around $150 for the tank then.
 
CarstenB said:
did you check with inmate MyRedStrom over on advrider if he still has his used tank? He has sold the parts of his Terra for about 50% of the new prices which should be around $150 for the tank then.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I thought of him already. His for sale threads have been deleted from advrider and I think he had already sold the tank. It's a bummer because he lives right near me!

New tank lists for $459.51 from Husqvarna. "Estimated" 30-day delivery wait.


Matt
 
You may wish to try the scotch weld dp8005. It should fuse with the tank, not stick. It has been used on the 3d airfilter mod.

Might be a bit of a job cleaning up the JB weld. You may wish to gouge the cracks for a stronger repair.

But as long as you are planning on replacing, it couldn't hurt. You may fix it before you find a good deal on a tank.
 
mag00 said:
You may wish to try the scotch weld dp8005. It should fuse with the tank, not stick. It has been used on the 3d airfilter mod.

Might be a bit of a job cleaning up the JB weld. You may wish to gouge the cracks for a stronger repair.

But as long as you are planning on replacing, it couldn't hurt. You may fix it before you find a good deal on a tank.
Click to expand...

Here's what I think is happening - The plastic tank is incompatible with gasoline. :eek::eek::eek: Crazy I know but there is surface cracking ALL over the tank, but only in areas where fuel spills. I think the original failure was the fuel pump gasket and the P.O./dealer RTV'd the hell out of it. Last summer that started leaking for me and it spilled gas out onto the sides of the tanks. This spring the sides of the tank are riddled with surfaced cracks.

When I pulled the fuel pump and saw that the tank was lined it got me thinking about all those surface cracks and what might have caused them. Fuel tanks that are incompatible with fuel. Awesome stuff.

So... I figured my fix was temporary. It was just a lot more temporary than expected.



Matt
 
The bolts were over tightened or too long. Because the nuts were then pulled up, any future tightening would be like tightening valve covers without straightening the flange. It's plastic, so straightening was not going to happen. A new sealing ring would have been needed. That could have been made out of a similar plastic about 1/8 thick and carefully bonded with the dp8005. precise holes for the bolts and careful bonding would leave the sealing surface flat. Extra flange made big enough to cover the entire flat area would catch most all the cracks. The one that was the biggest, would need a little more attention.

Still totally do able. Just will take time to clean and fit and assemble etc. The glue is quite expensive, finding compatible material could take some effort. Fitment would be critical.

Welding the new flange on could be done I suppose, but bonding it would make the flange thicker and stiffer for sealing purposes. No lamination as the glue would bond it solid and fill slight gaps.

This is an option if you cannot get a tank, which would be the better fix.
 
The tank construction is strange. The part where the nuts sit is very thick. It drops down 1/4" thick or so below the surface of the nut. But the surrounding plastic is very thin. And the plastic around the nuts isn't "volcanoeing" up like it would when overtightened. It's splitting. Like the surface skin is shrinking.

Here are couple of photos of the side of the tank. Gas spilled over from the leak at the top maybe 5-6 times at the end of last summer and these cracks are the result. Would you trust this tank after repair? I would with a water or oil tank maybe. With a fuel tank? No.

Moral of the story - Don't get any gas on the outside of your gas tank.


IMG_0884.JPG

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Matt
 
:eek::eek: I've never seen ANY plastic tank do that!
This is WEIRD!....and I'm not convinced that spilled fuel is the culprit here.
Fuel fumes permeating through the material, making paint and coatings bubble-up and stickers fall off....seen that plenty of times....but those "cobweb" cracks?
It somehow looks like some sort of chemical issue to me...
 
Holy Crops, that is not fixable. That looks more like stress cracking but from what, who knows. Could have been a bad batch that slipped through production. Just not a normal kindof failure.

For some reason I keep thinking about the bikes parted out on ebay. Fire damaged.
 
glitch_oz said:
:eek::eek: I've never seen ANY plastic tank do that!
This is WEIRD!....and I'm not convinced that spilled fuel is the culprit here.
Fuel fumes permeating through the material, making paint and coatings bubble-up and stickers fall off....seen that plenty of times....but those "cobweb" cracks?
It somehow looks like some sort of chemical issue to me...
Click to expand...

Definitely a strange reaction. No strange chemicals though. I bought the bike with 900 miles and no cracks. Put on 3500 miles last summer with no cracks. Fuel leaks happened at the end of the summer and then this spring - cracks appeared - and only in the area where the fuel leaks. No cracks in any other mounting points. All cracking is in the areas where fuel leaks/drips.

Only thing I can think is maybe an incompatibility between the plastic and US Ethanol fuels.

In other news - I just got a replacement tank on ebay for $200USD. Not exactly looking forward to doing this job.


Matt
 
mag00 said:
Holy Crops, that is not fixable. That looks more like stress cracking but from what, who knows. Could have been a bad batch that slipped through production. Just not a normal kindof failure.

For some reason I keep thinking about the bikes parted out on ebay. Fire damaged.
Click to expand...

Not stress cracks. Surface cracks and only where the fuel has touched.

Could def be a bad mix of plastic that is unstable, etc. Nothing from a parted bike. Bike had 900 miles when I purchased and no cracking. When I pull it out I will show more photos.



Matt
 
Bad batch....maybe. Even a "bad" sample...otherwise we'd have seen more of them here and in other forums around the globe, yours seems to be the first one, though.
IF...it really is fuel/ gas related. Maybe some cleaning agent/ truck wash/ etc used previously reacting with the fuel?
No idea!
But...we've got Ethanol crap too here and my tank/ filler area has been drenched regularly in the past when overfilling into that awkwardly-angled neck, gas running all over the bike...
something doesn't jell there.
 
I used Mothers polish on my MZ 500 and that ruined the plastic, but not in the same way. It clouded the finish. The Mothers chemically reacted with the fender.

So maybe there was something that happened. This surely needs more investigation. Being a one off type problem, I would lean towards someone in the factory using a bad part, to finish the bike. All the other bad ones in the batch could have been scrapped and one slipped through. I think we would see more fuel tank issues if it were something else, unless you used some strange cleaning or polishing chemical, or some other form of additive.

The cracks look like stress cracks for the tank expanding and contracting. I think sending pictures off to KTM and Husky might be a good thing. We might see a fuel tank recall out of this.

You may be the first one of many due to age and chemical. Or not.

I had a honda 100 that the tank cracked on in a few places. Due to age, sun and expansion and contraction. That tank replacement was only $50.
 
I think the expanding/contracting sounds like a plausible cause.
I could see with known issues of the vent ball thingy getting stuck the tank pressures might cause something like this.
I have not experienced this, but the "gas geyser" reports sounds like a lot of pressure.
 
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