Deadly Davrian Drip

[Nugget]

Just jacked the Davrian up ready to fit a pair of comp couplings and with the back end in the air a smell of stale fuel and drips were noticed from the nearside inner wheel arch, unfortunately I have a leaking fuel tank.

I've seen pictures of the fuel tanks being removed before but usually as part of a full restoration, anyone got any advice on what the minimum is that I could get away with to remove the tank, I obviously need to cut away the top but is it possible to wriggle them out from there ???

[Nugget]

Further my last has anyone considered fitting a baffled tank in the void behind the seats and locating the filler cap in the rear quarter window? 2 benefits I can see is that it would probably be a better position in the event of an accident and also I would be able to sort out a gauge, the only downside is the change of position and its effect on weight distribution of 40 kilos of fuel plus approx 10 kg for the tank, nt sure it would be that significant though.

Has this been done before, any comments???

[Soyuz]

If you cut the fibreglass away on the top you can then scrap the foam out around the tank and eventually get it out.

[edgedj]

If you cut the fibreglass away on the top you can then scrap the foam out around the tank and eventually get it out.

yup I can confirm it's pretty easy to cut the tanks out. Mine had actually filled the sills with petrol, yes I was literally sat surrounded by neat petrol sloshing all round me with no idea - eugh.

Once the top of the tank was opened up I used a hand held hacksaw blade to cut downwards far enough all round the tanks to break them free. Once they have started leaking they are scrap so doesn't matter how you yank them out really.

Cheers
Dave

[Nugget]

I got one out earlier, only a couple of hours work and I also got away with just trimming off the top and then easing out the foam with a combination of a long screwdriver and a wood saw, I also spoke to Tim Duffee earlier and in conclusion I'm also going to remove the non-leaking offside tank too and will replace both with Duffee supplied foam filled new tanks. Its not too bad a job but it was a effing mess of stale petrol drenched foam.

[pjab]

Tim did my tanks and it was a superb job.

The only down side of him doing them was his quick glance at my shape (round is a shape) followed by advice to only fill the passenger tank if possible.

[Nugget]

Tim did my tanks and it was a superb job.

The only down side of him doing them was his quick glance at my shape (round is a shape) followed by advice to only fill the passenger tank if possible.

I reckon I lost a couple of pounds wrestling the first one out, going to go for the burn on the second one

[Hal Mercier]

50kg just behind the seats would surely not help the handling, which is already slightly rear biased. Interesting to see what real life effect it has, measured on a racetrack, in comparison with the OE tanks though.

I do like the idea of a single, baffled tank, I'm thinking of fitting one on the Mk 7 in the spare wheel well, as it has the battery in the rear.
I fancy a BMW K1200RS conversion, so would need a high pressure pump which is normally fitted in the tank...easier to make a tank for the purpose than fiddle around with my existing ones, at least that's what I'm thinking just now. It's true that the behind the seat bulkhead would be safer from shunts, though.