L1500 fuel tank fix

LRP

New member
Sep 29, 2010
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canada
Intro; greetings, looks like a great group that i got refered to by the cast boolit
group. i,m retired and live north of the 49th paralell on the left coast. i recently
bought a used L1500 that was in need of some TLC. i bought a new steering
shaft ass as the previous owner had wraped some 1/4 inch rod in the ball grouves. even Arnold Swarthneager would of made faces trying to steer this thing. i used a 3/4 inch oillight bushing in place of the rubber bushing on top of the steering colulm. i plan on making a rubber washer that fits tight on the shaft with a O-ring thats glued on the bottom of the outside edge of the rubber washer so it acts like a drip lip to keep any water away fron the shaft. yes i cleaned the weep hole and yes it was pluged. next was the fuel tank, $650 not includeing the tax. thank heavens it,s no longer availible. i cut the bottom 1 inch
of to see what i had, ugly is the word. so i cut 1 more inch off and i was now in some still rusty metal but liveable. i bent some 1 x 3/16 flat bar as thats what i had and overlaped the tank edge about 1/8 inch and tack it in place. same for the other side of the tank and u can see the splice in the middle. welded that up
with .023 wire with my little wire fee 105 amp cranked wide open. i then put a 1/8 plate on the bottom. the 3/16 flat bar edge made it easy to weld the bottom
to. to try and weld a bottom to that >040 edge would have been a nightmare
with warpping buckling, and burning through. YMMV. these tanks had no shut of valves so changeing the fuel filter meant draining the tank. it has a valve now. i all made a stainless water sump with a little ball valve to check and drain the water. u notice that i put the fuel outlet on the far side of the tank to make it easier to get at. I allso bought the POR motorcycle gas tank rust kit to stop
the rust in the tank. i allso had to change the reverse gear which came in yesterday. 3/4 hour the install whithout spliting the tractor in two. anyhow
enough for the first post and the pics should be worth a few thousand words.
regards
LRP