Just when we thought it was ok to sell the MTT tanks and push them, we found a change needed to be made. At the same time, 2 of the fittings that we thought were ok decided to start leaking.
Well that was annoying! One of the leaks was from the big fitting for the "carb'd" version of the tank. We tried a few things with the plastics plant and with the fittings themselves, but nothing worked. Meaning: carby people will need to buy one of our fuel plates.
The change we did was HUGE ... made a new fuel flange area and had it welded into the tank. It also had to have the angle changed as the carb'd 900 has the least engine to tank clearance. So our change moved the tank away from the head and there is now more than 1/2" clearance.
The final leak actually wasn't our fault. The manufacturer changed to a rubber fuel hose for the filler-drain. This is an internal passageway that goes to the bottom of the tank from the filler cap area. The PEX didn't bond to the rubber and the tank would eventually develop a super-slow leak from around the outside of the brass insert at the bottom of the tank.
This was something I thought was long solved... well, it was. We got them to go back to a PE plastic pipe. Our PEX bonds to the PE pipe upon manufacture, making a seal. We also tried a metal pipe thinking that it would get fully coated with plastic. As it turns out, the metal pipe needs active heating, as there isn't enough heat transfer from the outside of the mold, so plastic only sticks to 3 inches at either end. We've got one of these tanks in and will test it anyway.
So far, I got the fuel light to come on and then rode another 25 miles. The bike wouldn't start on the sidestand, but would when propped up to riding position. When I filled it up, I put in 3.7 gallons. The next tests will be to determine how much fuel gets used until the fuel light and also remaining capacity after the fuel light comes on.
Now for the exciting part...I never really cared for the black tanks, as my Mosnter is a red / white S2R. Well, these test tanks only came in black, so I stuck it on the bike. Then I noticed that the half fairing was out of place (being red and all), so I took it off. And BAM, my bike looks good. It's a nice feeling to be a long time addict and suddenly be surprised and excited by my bike.
It's kind of like the best of all classic Monsters with a modern twist.
Pics: (
link to pic gallery)
