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Soldering a fuel tank

F

Fritz Maurer

Well-known Member
I am in a position where I need to section the bottom of a fuel tank, about 12" by 18". Got a piece to fit in there, all lap joints. The propane torch seems to foul the joint for some reason. Am currently attempting to use 50/50 acid core solder, and some kind of liquid acid flux in a squirt bottle that I got from the hardware store. Thanks,Fritz
 
Get some tinning flux from Eastwood and treat the whole area to be soldered .Then use the larger lead sticks to fill in the seams. Smooth out the work with a tallow covered rag while playing the flame over it.
 
you're problem is the acid core . liquid flux and acid core do not mix. use muratic acid and 50/50 solder that is solid. should work fine.
 
dont know your situation ,so please forggive out of box thinkn .. but... did you consider red-kote as a lasting repair ??/
 
Would be a lot stronger if it was welded or Brazed.
Can both be done on the old tanks.
The red cote would be the easiest. As already stated.
 
Like another posted. The problem is the acid core solder. It is making the surface "dirty". You need tinning flux not sweating flux too. They are a little different in how they work.

So clean the tank up. Then tin the tank and then tin the repair piece. Spread a good amount of the flux on the tank. Then lay the repair piece over it and then solder them together.

Something like this will not "sweat" like a copper fitting. One of the reasons is that steel does not conduct heat as well as copper. So it is hard to get the area the right temperature to work. So tin both pieces before you try to fuse them.
Another thing. Everything needs to be absolutely clean. Any foreign matter at all and it will not work.
 
Is tinning flux the stuff you use for lead repairs to body panels? Using the stuff like bondo is what I mean.
 
in soldering a fuel tank an a torch is not a good thing. i use a soldering iron,nodicks soldering paste an 50/50solder.flame could light fumes in tank. you can find irons at yard sales.flea markets or borrow one,much safer.done one for brian in oh acouple yrs ago an still holding as of last show. biggest thing is clean, clean,clean, use a brush to put paste on an tin it. one thing i found is some ribbon copper found at hobby store for filler. with iron you can control temp alot better an safer. you can heat iron with propane torch an can keep heat even.
 
And the one big important thing make sure you still have eyebrows when you have finished!!!. Putting a naked flame near a fuel tank or any other tank is deadly dangerous, even if they have been washed out with water, Sometimes purging them with exhaust gasses will leave them safe, but do find out more....Too many people have been seriously injured or killed welding or soldering tanks.
Go the correct way about doing it and good luck.
Sam
Ps glass fibre resin will seal a pinholed tank for years. I did my tank this way back in 1986 and it is still good!
 
It is a liquid sealer that you pour in the tank and slosh it around so the whole inside is covered. It dries and seals the holes. Had it done to one of my tractor gas tanks. Never again. Stuff kept coming off and plugging up the sediment bowl.
 
No, that won't work here. Trying to reconstruct the bottom of my W-12 gas tank, whole bottom and part of the front panel gone.
 
I rebuild a lot of carb's & that gas tank sealer fills them up. I wouldn't use that stuff in a lawn mower tank if I was going to throw it away.I just did a H Deere carb that was rebuilt 3 yrs ago,tank was relined with some red sealer the same time. This tractor has set with 10% ethanol 87 for about 10 mo. The float & needle was stuck tight. I look in the tank and whole btm of the tank the sealer is all bubbled up. I am sure that these tanks are not sealed and cured out properly. Maybe they need air circulated. I would much rather deal with rust. At least you can control the rust with magnets, stand pipes, and a good sediment bowl & screen. That material that FIT uses does a good job of cleaning dirty tanks.
 
A note of thanks from me ont he difference between "tinning" and "sweating" fluxes. I've soldered a lot of steel, but I always used premixed solder and flux we got from a gunsmith supply place. The muriatic acid rang a bell in my head and makes sense. I just forget the difference over the years!
 
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