"FOAK" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:04f1b7a8-9d52-41e4-993f-(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> You folks are and endless supply of kindness and good will and now I
> return to ask your advice:
Many people will suggest a mechanical method of getting the crud out and, in
the past I would also have suggested "a handful of mixed nuts and a good
shake".
However, while this was fine for bikes of the mid-80's and earlier, which
tended to be made of thick-gauge steel and have a simple hole for the
filler, later bike tanks are usually made of much thinner steel and have a
neck in the filler.
This means that anything (nuts, stones, etc) you put in the tank can result
in embossing the surface (dents from the inside) and will be a bastard to
get them all out. I know two people who fell into this trap. The first
tried to sand down the small bumps and ended-up with a tank that was covered
in holes like it had been hit with a shotgun. The other ended-up with a big
dent in the side, as it hit the wall while he was trying to get the last
stones out. This had to be filled and each of the raised bumps had to be
knocked-back with a pein and filled, before the whole thing could be
repainted. The result was a mess and he bought a s/h tank and started
again, this time using 8mm nuts, with the idea he could fetch them out with
a magnet-ona-string; forgetting that the tank was made of steel...
--
Dave
ex Motorcycle Maintenance Workshop
http://tinyurl.com/4mhaw