indian petrol tank cap no breather

[ian williams]

hi all ;
just thought id post a msg regarding the 3" indian made fuel tank caps as ive just got my NH back on road after fitting a spare indian made fuel tank whilst i repaired and paint the original leaking tank .

indian made tank has modern made fuel cap fitted , the tank is fine and doesnt leak but when i was out the bike conked out twice on me and although i got it re started after few mins i looked into things on monday last .

seems i had vapour lock as there is no breather hole in the indian tank cap and thus after a bit the fuel stops flowing from tank hence engine conks out due to no fuel in carb .

original ariel tank cap has a small breather hole down part of centre of locking bolt with a hole drilled into its side just under the cap where the "funnel" shaped trap is but the indian cap doesnt .

i have drilled my indian cap bolt same as the original cap has and all is well now , fuel flows readily and breather is working .

only issue with the indian tank is that the filler neck is slightly larger than original and so i had to put my new indian cap onto lathe and take some material out to allow it to fit .

also one thing i found is that the nitrile rubber cork tank cap gaskets i buy from draganfly seem to be affected by the modern petrol and go mishapened , so it may need natural cork or thick card gaskets in future .

if anyone else has problems with vapour locks and are using a new indian made tank cap then you may read this and sort things out .

cheers
ian

[Steven.Carter]

Leather makes a great gasket, if you give me the diameters I'll make one for you.

My WNG had a similar problem with the painted fuel cap blocking the hole, so I swapped it with my 51VH. Then 1 year later out on my 51 the inevitable happened

[Gui.dorey]

Hmmmm... I‘m using an Indian petrol tank, but I didn‘t order the petrol cap with it, as I had an original one. On mine the filler cap seems to be just a smidge too narrow as my original filler cap wouldn‘t fit. I did the same as you and filled it a bit down, and now fits and works well.

Otherwise, I‘m extremely happy with the tank and its quality and comparing it to my original one I really don‘t see much difference. The supplier was Royal Choppers.

But from what one hears, it seems the quality varies immensely between suppliers and as we see here, on mine the filler hole was too narrow and on yours too large.

[ian williams]

Leather makes a great gasket, if you give me the diameters I'll make one for you.

My WNG had a similar problem with the painted fuel cap blocking the hole, so I swapped it with my 51VH. Then 1 year later out on my 51 the inevitable happened

thanks for info and offer steven , i have made a cap gasket from some 2mm gasket material and will give that a try , if not i will have a look into leather .

at least it wasnt something more serious like the mag .

ian.

[nevhunter]

I've used thick "cardboard?) proper gasket material and make it as large a diameter as will fit right into the corners of the cap. I've had some like that for over 20 years. Nev

[Steven.Carter]

Leather makes a great gasket, if you give me the diameters I'll make one for you.

My WNG had a similar problem with the painted fuel cap blocking the hole, so I swapped it with my 51VH. Then 1 year later out on my 51 the inevitable happened

thanks for info and offer steven , i have made a cap gasket from some 2mm gasket material and will give that a try , if not i will have a look into leather .

at least it wasnt something more serious like the mag .

ian.

Indeed, probably the best breakdown you can have, fixed without leaving your seat