Fuel Tank Leak

Fuel Tank Leak

Large FXR Tank above that has been on the bike for several years now. I like the added ride range.
 The above picture is my bike with the FXR gas tank. This tank has been on my bike for several years now and gave me good comfortable mileage range. A couple of years ago I detected a leak, it began with a hint of fuel aroma then some obvious signs of a leak on my primary cover just below the petcock. Nothing major it seemed. The petcock that was on it had the seal disintegrating from ethanol fuel right at the valve. There would be a steady drip when the fuel lever was in the on position. Instead of repairing the petcock my wife bought me a much better Pingle brand unit. Problem solved...for awhile. I rode the bike most the year and didn't notice a leak, except in the garage there would be a hint of fuel vapors; I assumed these were coming from my sons 1974 Nova project as it to, when sitting, would smell like this.
 Well one day when getting ready for a ride, the bike had sat for two weeks with a full tank, it was almost empty and there was this nasty yellowish green stain all over the primary side and a dark spot on the dirt part of the garage floor where the bike sits. I pull off the tank and it looks to be leaking around the cross over tube nipples, JB weld to the rescue. I had no way at the time to pressurize the tank to check for leaks and calling a couple shops was no help. There looked to be maybe, possibly, kind of sort of a pin hole leak at the rear mount; so we JB Weld that as well. The only reason I used the JB weld was for not being able to find any shop that would test it and re-weld to seal it for sure. 

 Peanut tank mounted in above picture looks very small after the large tank being on it so long.
On to a few weeks ago as the JB seemed to be holding pretty well after most of the year, one of my brothers and I were setting out to ride the Blueridge Parkway. All was going well as we neared the upper part of North Carolina towards Virginia, then I kept smelling gas. I'd look down and not see anything but the smell was getting stronger. Finally I look down between the seat and the rear of the tank as we ride and see the seat front is all wet. I quickly pull off into a vacant buildings lot and get off as my brother rides up behind me asking what's wrong. As I get off I say I have gas on my seat, as I turn I see a water fall of fuel cascading along the frame and all along down the side of my battery. It's leaking like a sieve. We get it back home, pull off the tank, put on the low riding range Peanut tank and then inspect the FXR tank. It looks like it's leaking at the petcock area (Picture below) and there is a stain. We hook up the air compressor with a short bit of fuel line to the petcock, put on the fuel cap, spray on soapy water all over the bottom of tank and it turns out to be the rear mount weld is the culprit.  

 In the picture below you can see the JB Weld along the weld seam that held for so long. The mount actually didn't leak around where we JB'd it but rather the rest of the mount that looks more like the factory brazed on area. Note that the bracket piece with the bolt is the fabricated mount to make it fit the Ironhead. This worked for many years. Again I could not find anyone to weld this up because they are afraid of ruining the tank and burning through the light gauge metal. These tanks are found for around $300 in okay shape and up to over $800 for great shape.
 I went looking around the net to places I have had luck finding deals before, logging onto www.chopcult.com I looked around and then went to read some of the articles. I read one about a guy from my old neck of the woods in Georgia, he's a one man shop who builds custom motorcycles and works on motorcycles and I see that he does all kinds of motorcycle related work. So I send Chad at www.Shop102moto.com an email in hopes he would tackle this job and I send along pictures. He replies that he can do it. I'm going to chance it and send him the tank in hopes he can fix my tank to be leak proof again. I'll post up the job when he's finished with it. I told him that this was a secret of how to adapt and mount these tanks to old Ironheads, guess the secret is out now.  

By the way, this is the brother I was riding with who use to be known as Preacher or Preach for short. Ironic that these days he lives by and lives up to the moniker.