Stuff That Works - JB Weld on a Motorcycle gas tank. (Beats permatex)
This story starts with a sad part - someone vandalized my motorcycle in early June. I noticed a "crinkle" in my gas tank one day and upon further investigation found that not only had the tank ben dented or bent, but the clowns also did some damage to my frame where the tank attaches.
Yadda yadda yadda - call my insurance company and they work a deal with the Beemer dealer in Grand Rapids for a new tank. Life is good - well, except for the fact that BMW takes MONTHS to get a gas tank painted on over to the US of A. (It has been on order since the middle of June.) No mind you, my bike is not an antigue - it is a 2004! They produced the Rocksters for several years, but only in 3 colors: green, copper, and white. So hows come BMW can't just have a tank or two primed and ready to paint one of three colors? Where is the highly touted German engineering brilliance?
Anyhow, in the ensuing weeks, the worst part of the bend starts to leak gas - let me tell you having gas seeping out of the tank onto my person was exciting. SInce the tank ain't showing I decide to take some steps to stop the leak - went to NAPA and bought the NAPA/Permatex gas tank sealer. Uhm, it is made to seal gas tanks. HA! works for a few miles and starts to leak, so I remove the sealer and repeat the application according to the directions with same crappy results.
JB Weld to the rescue! They have a testimonial on their website jbweld.net dealing with a situation just like mine! So this morning I hustled out and bought me some of this:
As you can see - the rapair is not a thing of beauty - not that it matters much now that the tank is trashed and uglied up from the fuel leaking through the Permatex.
I am happy to report that I fired the bike up at 2:45 and went out for a couple hours with no leaks. Thank you JB Weld!
UPDATE: 9/9/11 - sad to say that the JB Weld started letting go yesterday after many miles n smiles and 11 days. A friend just recommended something called "seal all" - he used it with success on a carb on his tractor. Will see.
Update 10/5 - tried "seal all" - it did not work at all. I re-applied JB Weld and have had success for over 2 weeks now. I have altered two things. First, I am no longer filling my tank all the way up - I put in about 2 to 2.5 gallons. Also, when ever I park the bike I open the gas cap to release the pressure (the bike does have EFI) and this seems to be helping. BMW does not seem to be able to produce the correct replacement tank - but that is another story!!
10/23 - JB Weld is still working. Have ridden hundreds more miles (I think we finally have the correct solution to my problem at BMW!) and it is holding fine. I release pressure from the tank every time I park the bike and do not fill it all the way.
Found another great use for it:
2/14/12 - The JB Weld held on my gas tank until such time as we were able to match the paint and replace the tank. It worked so well that I used it to repair a loose part on the exhaust of my '99 Toyota Rav4. There was an irritating rattle and I located a loose junction where an air sensor fits into the exhaust. The bolts holding it were shot with rust so I put a nice layer of JB Weld on it and the rattle is gone.
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