Filler cap drain hole fix

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spooky
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Filler cap drain hole fix

Post by spooky »

Thanks for all your help - It took me 10 minutes to do the following and fix the issue - This is by way of thanks and for the next person who discovers this problem.

Problem: Water getting into the tank
Cause, drain hole blocked.

The drain hole in the filler I have been told connects to a molded integral tube in the tank. This exits at the rear of the tank, on the left and underneath. An aluminium nipple connects the tank to a rubber hose that crosses under the tank, over to the right of the bike and then down the side behind the side case to under the bike - like a battery overflow pipe would.

What I did:
Pull the hose up and out on the right hand side. Gently push and pull to work the hose back across the bike under the tank. NB. I have not lifted the tank. work the pipe out. Then push the pipe back down the frame to get it to fall as straight down from the nipple as possible. This is so that when the nipple is turned the pipe can easily turn with the nipple - so no need to remove the pipe from the nipple if done this way. There was differing opinion on the size of spanner to use on the nipple or if it was even metric. As the nipple is aluminium and soft, I used a metered adjustable to get the size 13mm (on my bike). With a good quality 13mm open ended spanner I easily turned the nipple out a cuple of turned and then unscrewed it with my fingers. All manner of crap then flooded out of the opening. The nipple was furred up solid and even looked like it may have a ball valve in it. It did not. It was just a "pearl" of lime scale in the hole. With the nipple clamped in a vice and the hose dangling straight down I gently drilled out the crap. Then blew up the hose to clear it. I thought of widening the hole, but wandered if this would ream off any plating, making the hole just rust up sooner. Duh, it is alupinium, no coating on it and probably why ir furred up in the first place. I drilled the nipple out to 3mm. It has taken about ten years for it to fur up so hopefully it will be clear for another 15!! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction and hope this hellps someone in the future. Jamie. :happyhappy:
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shebee
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Re: Filler cap drain hole fix

Post by shebee »

Thanks for the detailed description and glad its sorted :happyhappy:
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JimBo
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Re: Filler cap drain hole fix

Post by JimBo »

I had the same problem but simply couldn't budge the nipple. I probably could have but only by ripping the housing out with it! Not a good result :shock: .

So my solution - simply drill the drain hole in the nipple out in situ with a small modellers finger drill. The good thing about this is you can "feel" how your progressing, regularly removing the drill to allow the crud to fall out. There was plenty of it too! I think a yearly clean like this may be a good idea?

It was a beautiful sight seeing the water cascade out of the tube near the right hand foot rest when testing :thumbsup: .
Going to drain the tank now and hopefully have an uncontaminated fuel supply :ride: .
So many motorcycles, so little money!
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Bear of Little Brain
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Re: Filler cap drain hole fix

Post by Bear of Little Brain »

Well done, Spooky, but I'm with JimBo. I posted something about twiddling a drill to clear that nipple some years ago – with the advice that it is a good idea to stuff a rag below the drill/nipple in order to catch the drill if/when you lose your grip on the drill bit (mine dropped onto the swinging arm pivot and was a pig to get at it).
Like JimBo, I was too concerned about ripping the thread out of the tank to risk putting too much leverage on the nipple, so I left well alone. I suppose with the tank off and a replacement nipple to hand I might consider drilling out the nipple now that I know that it is aluminium, but I'll just keep twiddling drills for now. Actually, I should probably be doing that again by now. :nod:
Nevertheless, thanks for the detailed description, Spooky/Jamie. Useful info.
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