At 10:04 AM 3/27/00 -0800, you wrote:
>Hi Will. It has been a while since I have had a good look at the fuel tank
>in my 2500, but from what you describe (a leak between the copper pipe and
>the tank) I doubt if the source of the leak is a weld. You can't weld
>copper to steel. It would most likely be a soldered joint. Pick at it with a
>sharp point, and you should be able to tell if it is soft solder. It could
>be hard soldered (silver solder) or brazed (bronze fill rod) but you should
>be able to tell which it is.
>
>If it is soft soldered, I would just fix it. Obviously you would not want to
>use a torch. You could use a copper soldering iron, either a large electric
>version, or one of the old solid copper irons which are heated up with a
>torch (at some distance from the tank). I kind of like the second type,
>cause you can pour the heat into them and consequently solder larger sheet
>metal objects like gas tanks. Besides, they are fairly easy to pick up cheap
>at junky stores.
>
>Having said that, I guess I should add that I know squat about fuel cells
>and there may be lots of good reasons for buying one, even if you had a tank
>with no leaks.
>
>Stephen
>1972 TVR
You're right; I mispoke to say it was welded. That's my amateur shorthand
for soldered. It deffinately is a solder, and it has split (from what
stress I couldn't guess... old age??). I'm probably going to have the tank
boiled, preasure tested, and sealed. The innards of the tank look like
those photos of the lungs of a cigarette smoker that you see im pamphlets
in the doctor's office. This thing'd be spitting up grit/phlegm into the
carbs for years to come!
cheers,
Will
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