Well seems I have a leak in my gas tank. Looks like it is coming from under one of the straps. I pulled the tank and while disconnecting the fuel level sensor it broke. Well now I have to replace that. My question is, how expensive is it to get a tank fixed? I've heard of people going to radiator places and getting them cleaned and fixed. The tank seems to have a little rust on the out side, but the inside is almost like new.

 

Can you JB weld it???? It should not cost much to fix a leak at a radiator shop. Unless you broke on of those pipes for the fuel lines....

 

bring it to a radiator or gas tank shop and they will sandblast the area. A pinhole leak will more than likely lead to alot more. JB weld or any epoxy won't work. It will have to be soldered and or sealed from the inside.

 

I am doing this project right now, both problems you mentioned.

1) I located a tank with no holes in it, had to grind the screws of the fittings though, then removed sender and pick up, filled it with water to ensure it didn't go bang.

2) Treated tank with rust prepartaion and POR coated the whole tank, then primered and painted tank, its good to go. (Note POR has a hole repair product also)

3) Took sender and removed broken wire, it is the third wire that the 83 and earlier do not have, it goes through the plastic connector into a brass fitting and then a thin wire to the fixed sensor which I believe is the low gas warning light.

4) To repair the sender I located 3/8 fuel line, wire, 11/32 drill bit, gas resistant silicone.

5) Now drilled out where the bad wire broke of to 3/8, inserted about 2" of fuel line so that it sits inside the fuel tank and secured it with silicone.

6) soldered existing wire to my new piece, then wrapped it in shrink wrap. This soldered join is now inside the fuel line, seperating it from the contents of the tank. The old wire runs out the end of the fuel line and into the tank, I found a piece of steel to fit into the end of the fuel line, it is siliconed in place and clamped. Fuel tight and secure.

7) siliconed the outside of the fuel line to make the soldered joint completely secure from the elements also.

8) reinstalled fuel sender, reinstalled fuel pick up with new 4 mm 0.7 screws.

9) refit fuel tank, nice, clean, dry, with workin sender.

Total cost silicone at $3.00

Mazdatrix price on fuel sender over $100

 

I have photos but can't reduce them enough for the forum to accept, can anybody help?

 

Well, I took the tank out and hit it with a wire wheel. Seems along the strap area on the bottom had some rust and 3 pin holes. After much research, I will be using the POR 15 tank repair kit. They sell a porduct especially made to fix the holes called Por Patch that is like a putty to fill the holes and resistant to gas. So after cleaning the inside and using the sealer, I will paint the entire outside with Por 15 paint and the tank should be good for another 20 years! Toatl, $118 shipped from Por15. I have also odered a new fuel sending unit from Maxdatrix for $111.

 

theres a link on my sig to downloads.com, it should lead you to infraview. Its a free program that works awesome on pictures. When you open it up open the image you want. then click image on the top menu. then choose resize/remap. From there its just trial and err to get the size you want.

i can not see my sig so here: download.com link to infraview 3.98

 

You'll like that por putty john, i have some and it works good, drys hard as a rock too.

 

Please explain why JB weld will not work. I "seemed sealed" my tank with JB weld but have and have gas in it, but have yet to fill it up. Should expect failure? Do you have first hand knowledge of JB failing... really I need to know before I let $3.30 a gallon gas leak.

 

my tank was leaking from the fuel level sender on top of the tank. Anyways i used jb weld and it leaked, then i tried PC-7 which is an epoxy putty and it leaked also. Both are gas resistant and boy did i gob it it. Either time they leaked from the top of the tank which sucked. So in my experience neither worked, whether it be from the pressure of the tank which shouldn't be much, the location of the leak or whatever else. But muscling down a full tank of fuel, or attempting to save really sucks.

But who knows yours might work. I just think bringing it to someone who professionally seals these things is the best route. Between sandblasting and actual soldering it was about 70 bucks. It would have been twice that if i chose to seal it which i didn't.

 

POR tank repair works, it is very flexible and dries hard as steel, it can be sanded and then painted. Definately paint the whole tank with the POR rust coat then prime and top coat with regular paint.

 

meng, Im glad I live in SOcal and dotn have to deal with rust. The bad thing is I cant stop collecting junks.