Gas tank and fuel line repair

[John Hertog <crossram@xxxx>]

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the kind words. Appreciate it. This listserver is a wonderful
tool for all of us.

300G sitting for 30 years.. well, that might be better than if it had sat
for ten years... the "old" gasoline tended to hold up a LOT better and not
turn to mush quite as badly as the garbage they sell now.

Obviously, you need to drop the gas tank. Remove the sender. If it's gummed
up, soak it in a container of lacquer thinner for a few days. New socks are
avalable from your friendly Daimler-Chrysler dealer. Flush the tank out
with a garden hose ( after dumping out whatever might be left in it. ) and
flush it GOOD. Then, take a look inside. I use a 12 volt bulb attached to a
taillight socket and connected to a car battery to light up the inside, but
whatever you can concoct that will fit through the opening is fine.

YOU DO WANT TO FLUSH THE TANK OUT FIRST, very thoroughly, before putting
any electrical light or gizmo in it ! Gasoline vapors are very explosive.

Once you have examined what's there, in terms of rust or varnish, you can
decide whether the gas tank can be saved. Most likely it can. First
procedure is to dry it out thoroughly inside... I use an old hair dryer,
duct-taped to the filler neck. Let it run awhile til the inside of tank is
dry. Then pour in a couple-three gallons of lacquer thinner, and slosh
around for 24 hours. That will hopefully remove most of the varnish .

Rinse again thoroughly and dry again thoroughly and see where you're at. If
it looks reasonably clean in there, then time for the next step.

Call POR-15 and order one of their gas tank sealing kits. It comes complete
with etching solution, and a quart of sealer. Follow directions. First etch
the inside, then dry thoroughly, pour in the whole quart of sealer, slosh it
around well, pour out the excess, let sit for 5 days, you're done.

Please note that it will be important to devise some easy to use lighting
system to view what's goingon inside the tank, since you'll be wanting to
see the insides more than once.

Please also note that the POR15 sealer works WONDERS - it will seal up rust
and scale and even some varnish in the tank. Once it sets up, it's as hard
as a rock. Make sure to protect the sealing area of the fuel tank sender,
wear rubber gloves when handling chemicals and the gas tank sealer.

Where to get POR-15: http://www.por15.com/

Depending on the condition of the fuel line, you might elect to replace it
entirely. Then you will have a 100% new fuel system. You can purchase new
ram fuel lines from the fuel pump up to the carbs, and from carb to carb,
from InlineTube : http://www.inlinetube.com/

Have fun !

John