2017-12-13 Tank Drilling for Aux Tank

2017-12-13 Tank Drilling


I've been putting off drilling the tank for two days now.

The MapleFarkles bulkhead fitting requires a 3/4" hole. I have two UniBits. The first has a maximum diameter of 3/4". The second Ubit starts at 1/2". Thought I'd make a couple of test holes to see which one worked best.

UniBit 1 top side. Looks OK.



Bottom side? Not so good. I was wondering how well it work when the last 'ridge' is the diameter needed. Now I know.



No pics of UniBit2 test hole. It was awesome. Pilot drill, small Ubit to 1/2" then big Ubit to 3/4".



Nice fit.



The two UniBits. Red mark = no more drilling!



I lied. Pics out of sequence. UBit2 test holes.





Now to catch the shavings when drilling. Used 'CarverTape' aka paint tape as it sticks good enough but not enough to be PITA to remove.



After lots of double side tape to affix the bulkhead fitting to the tank then installing the tank then inspecting for clearance, I ended up with this location.



Pilot hole.



1/2" Ubit.



Shavings. At each 'step' of the Ubit I used compressed air to clean the tank and Ubit of shavings. BTW, the tape stuck like freaking GorillaGlue and was very difficult to remove from tank inner bottom. A royal PITA. More later.



One tiny little fragment. Needle nose pliers... done.



Ok then, looking good. So far so good?



The MF bulkhead is larger than the one I used on KrZy8 and requires a 1" socket. Kind of a PITA.. Too bulky to easily manuver.



The final product.



Here's what it looks like on the inside. See the tape? Yeah. Disassemble fitting. Put ham fist into tank. 20 minutes later.. success.



As it sits now, the fitting is off, I need to flush, inspect, reassemble, leak check. Hope this helps someone later. This is, most likely, my last time to drill an FJR tank!

nice clean work... are you mounting the tank on passenger seat?

I love how you always seem to work outside. No garage?

Dave

nice job indeed.

If you were to make a template using a couple of the holes in the tank as reference point to the precise point of drilling, you could take the guess work out for a lot of people. even just the measurements from two bolt hole to the drill point would very help full.

I wish I would have done that when I drilled my tank BUT, then again it would take a lot of the fun out of it for the next person. Just a thought. guessing you tank is back on the bike by this point.

08FJR4ME said:

I love how you always seem to work outside. No garage?
Dave

Click to expand...

He has a garage and a shop. Once he gets done moving most his crap to my shop , he will have some room . In reality the shop is small and has a low ceiling. When we did the engine swap on the 06 we had to rearrange the lights just so the lift could raise far enough. It's California and we all know it doesn't rain.

dcarver said:

Click to expand...

ricmachado said:

I love how you always seem to work outside. No garage?

Click to expand...

He does have a garage, the "Weed" you see growing is his other hobby (Growing in his garage)

We can just hope HRZ doesn't stumble on this post and make a few calls.

The bulkhead fitting I was sent from Mike (Maple Farkles) was straight. I looked real hard at the photos on his website and used some double sided tape and a piece of fuel line to simulate where the bulkhead fitting would be. I carefully placed the tank in place and found that the location I almost drilled was not optimal. With the tank in place, I reached up with a sharpie and marked a location that I thought gave me a little more clearance. I was nervous as hell before I drilled that tank on my '16 with 600 miles on it...LOL. Other than the rear mounting bracket cracking a couple times (he has since resdesigned), I love the tank and the range it provides.

This is the guide that I used when I installed mine 12 years ago. Still going strong 300,000 Km's later :

https://www.fjr1300.info/howto/bulkhead.html

I also installed one on my GF's 2004 VFR but had no guide as to location and how it might interfere with the engine and stuff down there. I bought a package of magnets from the local hardware store. It was a pack of 6 and they were about 1" diameter. I stacked together 3 magnets and put them on the tank bottom. I would move them around, drop the tank down onto the bike and look and feel for a clean fit. Worked like a hot damn.

Kendoo said:

The bulkhead fitting I was sent from Mike (Maple Farkles) was straight. I looked real hard at the photos on his website and used some double sided tape and a piece of fuel line to simulate where the bulkhead fitting would be. I carefully placed the tank in place and found that the location I almost drilled was not optimal. With the tank in place, I reached up with a sharpie and marked a location that I thought gave me a little more clearance. I was nervous as hell before I drilled that tank on my '16 with 600 miles on it...LOL. Other than the rear mounting bracket cracking a couple times (he has since resdesigned), I love the tank and the range it provides.

Click to expand...

hmm. wonder which bracket I have? tank sn is 14.. sent email to mike...

dcarver said:

Kendoo said:

The bulkhead fitting I was sent from Mike (Maple Farkles) was straight. I looked real hard at the photos on his website and used some double sided tape and a piece of fuel line to simulate where the bulkhead fitting would be. I carefully placed the tank in place and found that the location I almost drilled was not optimal. With the tank in place, I reached up with a sharpie and marked a location that I thought gave me a little more clearance. I was nervous as hell before I drilled that tank on my '16 with 600 miles on it...LOL. Other than the rear mounting bracket cracking a couple times (he has since resdesigned), I love the tank and the range it provides.

Click to expand...

hmm. wonder which bracket I have? tank sn is 14.. sent email to mike...

Click to expand...

Mine is sn 21. If you have a bunch of miles on it, maybe you are ok. He offered to repair mine, but I had a big ride coming up so I had it done locally. That weld also cracked so I had it beefed up even better. The latest setup survived the IBR and some serious rough roads, so I think its good to go now.

For those of you who used the Maple kit, did you use the 1/4" or 5/8" fittings?

Mr_Canoehead said:

For those of you who used the Maple kit, did you use the 1/4" or 5/8" fittings?

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Did you mean 5/16" fittings? Yes. 5/16".

I'm running 1/4" fuel line. Hard to tell how long it takes to transfer because it depends how much I have in the main tank. 30 minutes or so I'd estimate.

For what purpose are you folks adding an auxiliary fuel supply? Are you going into remote area where there is no gas for hundreds of miles? Are you doing Iron Butt rides that require you to go beyond piss stops and food? Seems to me you can get gas in the lower 48 States in almost any location within the range of a full tank of gas on a FJR. No offense, I'm an old guy and even when I was young riding beyond about 200 without a stop was painful. Is riding beyond a reasonable length of time healthy and safe? Reasonable is subjective as it depends on rest, health, and emotional factors.

Don is doing this so that he has extra gas for my Harley friend Jeff. We don't want to waste time going to town for gas and then taking the gas back out to Jeff.

art miller said:

For what purpose are you folks adding an auxiliary fuel supply? Are you going into remote area where there is no gas for hundreds of miles? Are you doing Iron Butt rides that require you to go beyond piss stops and food? Seems to me you can get gas in the lower 48 States in almost any location within the range of a full tank of gas on a FJR. No offense, I'm an old guy and even when I was young riding beyond about 200 without a stop was painful. Is riding beyond a reasonable length of time healthy and safe? Reasonable is subjective as it depends on rest, health, and emotional factors. mg2:

Click to expand...

Depending on conditions and speed an FJR can burn off a load of fuel in way less than 200 miles. A fuel cell is a great insurance policy when you need it.

#1 Go west from Grand Junction and set cruise around 100. Next, run out of gas

#2 I rarely get 200 miles out of my stock tank FJR. I go fast and have a large windscreen.

#3 I ran out of gas in rural North Dakota because nothing was open at 11 pm on a Sunday.

#4 if you need to start a large fire, you have more accelerant.

#5 I like to only stop every 3-5 hours when hauling ass across the continent. Stock tank makes that tough.

There are many places off the beaten path, in the western US, and in Canada where having gas is extremely beneficial.

RiderX posted: #3 I ran out of gas in rural North Dakota because nothing was open at 11 pm on a Sunday.

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MANY gas stations in the rural south close at 6 or 8 pm on Sunday, including some at Interstate interchanges. Often, they don't open until noon or 1 pm on Sundays. Refueling with 1/4 tank indicated will cut your average mph significantly, but not as badly as walking for a couple of miles.

And in Neveda the GPS says there is a gas station only 104 miles away. But the GPS doesn't tell you that it's been closed for a year and a half.