Followup on M Tank

Just a followup on a post from a few days ago. I unexpectedly had to go out of town for a few days, and was not able to post a followup earlier.

The gas tank from my M is a bit full of grunge, so after rebuilding the carb, and having it run lean, I figured I should clean the gas filter... which led to me seeing a bunch of junk in the tank.

I"m going to take the advice of one of the previous posters (Red Mist), take the tank off and put sand, kerosene, nuts, gravel and whatnot into the tank. Then, I"ll shake it up real good to get all the loose stuff out of it. Maybe I"ll get it dipped at a radiator shop. Then, I"ll seal the tank with some commercial product.

While I had the tank off, I was looking at replacing the tabs to which the J-hooks of the hood attach. Glennster asked if the flat plates to which the tabs attach are still braised to the tank. Yes, they are. Thank you for the offer of PICs. If the site fights you when posting pics of the tabs, please feel free to e-mail "em to me, or send a link or whatever. I"d be interested to see what those tabs look like.

Red Mist had some kind words about my not giving up on my M. Thank you, but no worries. This is what our hobby is about: making something better than it was when we got it. Keeping the old days alive awhile longer. Saving a little bit of history. Remembering those hard working folk who made this country great. Learning about low tech. Keeping up with the fix-break cycle to show the beast that you care. After all, it isn"t my tractor; I"ve just got the use of it while I"m alive, and I need to pass it along to the next user in better shape than its in now. Can"t say that about most of the modern stuff.

Whoops! I should have checked the other posts before posting this update. My bad! Glennster already posted pics of those tabs!

Be careful of the sand, gravel, hardware, etc. that you dump into that tank. Quite a bit of it will end up behind the baffle, and you will never get it out. I recommend taking it to a radiator shop and have it chemically cleaned. Besides that, those M tanks are heavy, unless you are built like Hercules, you'll never be able to shake it around enough to accomplish the task.

no problem dan, glad i could help out. like rusty said, take the tank to a radiator shop and have them boil it out and put a liner in it. a lot easier in the long run too. i had my super m tank cleaned and lined last year, ran around 100 dollars. i did an m tank myself a couple years ago, about 45 dollars for the liner kit, couple gallons of acetone, and a couple days of cleaning, tumbling and wrasseling the tank around. a lot less headaches having it done!!!!

I agree with rusty. I would not put stuff like that in there cause it will get stuck.. We take our tanks to the rad shop and they wash them out with a power washer and then epoxy coat the inside.. It works great not rust or anything...