[AmBraCol]

Can't believe I've been running the Rumbler 500 for almost six years now.  It's carried me around quite a bit, although mostly right here in Coffee Country with a couple longer rides to the plains and also to other Andean areas here between the Canal and the Equator.  The past couple years have been mostly sedentary with a few rides close to home. The national lockdown they instituted had us running the car instead of the bike as we were using it to deliver needed food boxes to folks who were in dire straits.   Anyway, a few weeks ago my wife started complaining about a strong gasoline smell in the garage.  As we must go through the garage to get into the rest of the house, this odor also apparently was affecting the first floor of our home as well.  I say apparently as I can't smell a skunk in a barrel anymore, probably due to eye drops I've had to apply daily for the past couple decades.

So I made time to pull the tank.  I'm not sure how it compares to the Classic and the Bullet so will detail how it goes on the Rumbler. 

• Use a hose to siphon as much gasoline as possible out of the tank.
  Remove the left hand side battery cover.
  Pull the front seat release cable and remove the saddle.
  Remove two bolts and washers that hold the rear of the tank down.
  Remove hose from tank to fuel injector.
  Lift rear of tank to gain access to the cables that connect the fuel gauge sending unit and the fuel pump and unhook them.
  Remove tank from bike, paying attention to where the breather hoses go

Once I got the tank off, I proceeded to remove the fuel level sending unit and the fuel pump/filter unit and clean the bottom of the tank. I also cleaned the bases of the sending unit and fuel pump and went out to get some new hose material to replace what I assume to be breather hoses with enough to replace the vacuum hose from the whatever it is to the fuel injector.  That one has broken a couple of times due to age, vibration and lovely Indian rubber products. It leaves the bike not idling well at all, to say the least.  Once the hoses were replaced (the tank to fuel injector hose was replaced a while back with a better one) I popped it all together and reinstalled it on the bike. The assumption had been that there was a leak around the gaskets on the sending unit and/or fuel pump.  That assumption proved wrong as even after cleaning it up and retorquing the bolts the leak reappeared immediately upon introduction of fuel... to be continued.

[Haggis]

Where's the leak coming from?

I have had a couple of tanks fail at the front mount, spot weld fractures.

[AmBraCol]

It appears to be coming from the seam, what some would call the "pinch weld" I believe.  BUT, need to pull it off and put it on something where I can get under and look after putting gasoline in it again. 

On the other hand, I ordered the KBS tank seal kit today.  They say it will take a week or two to deliver it... In the meantime I MIGHT take it in and have it welded and painted, kind of a belt and braces type approach.