How to remove the gas tank

Remove the seat. Passenger seat can stay on.
Remove the 2 bolts holding on the left hand side (drive shaft side) side cover



The arrows show the pieces we want to remove so we can slide the gas tank out this side. Not shown in the picture is the "mud guard" that sits in front of your rear tire. There is 2 bolts (I think) that holds it to the gas tank. You will want to remove these too.



Remove these 4 bolts ...



and this upper bolt.



Pull the complete assembly off. It may be tight as there is a "peg" on the frame side that fits into this assembly and is usually rusted.



As a side note, here is rectifier/regulator (R/R). My bike is an 88 but I have a later model R/R on it. You can tell by the cooling fins and there is a ground wire from the R/R. Those with early model R/Rs, do not have a ground wire. The only ground connection for the R/R is through this mount to the "peg" (blue arrow). This is a major problem for charging issues.



The "peg" I keep referring to. Although it is also a positioning peg, I found with the earlier R/Rs, that when it was rusty my charging voltage was crap and would only improve when I cleaned this off.



Back to the tank removal! Remove your gas cap and slide the rubber splash guard off.

---- NOTE --- The top of your tank will look different. Mine was set up for EFI, so you will not have the round plate
with a fitting on it!!



Remove the 2 bolts holding the top of the tank to the frame.



We now have good access to the tank.



The gas tank has 2 "feet" on the bottom that sort of snaps in around the bottom frame piece. You have to lift the tank up to break it free from this and then slide it out towards you. This can be awkward and it is still fairly tight. There is a rubber insulator on the other side of the tank that wedges up against the other frame rail. It sometimes helps to remove that rubber piece to give you a bit more room to wiggle the tank out.

Last minute add ins:

--> Remove rear fender. Someone with a stock bike please send pics

--> Remove rear left shock


Items I missed! :bang head:

There is a connector under the seat that goes to the Low Fuel light. I have to dig up the picture for that. You have to disconnect that.
Also I forgot to show/tell you to disconnect the fuel lines! I will update with pictures if people think that will help.

Thanks Buster! Great write-up. I'd like to see the other pics you mentioned, but can prolly figure it out without em.

OK it's a pain in the ass to get that tank out. I have everything disconnected and un screwed and the damn thing STILL won't come out the way your saying. Do i have to take the rear fender off or just the mud guard? I have the mud guard off now and I still can't get this damn thing out. The top of the tank, the part that has the little inset for where the frame goes along keeps hitting and it won't let me get it out and further than that. I'm half tempted to get the back left shock off but I think it will be a pain in my ass to get it back on.

Any tips on where to go from here?

nevermind, i took the shock off and the fender. Came RIGHT out! Might want to add in there that those two steps may be necessary.

Great write up. I wish you had writen the Clymer book.

Nick. said:

nevermind, i took the shock off and the fender. Came RIGHT out! Might want to add in there that those two steps may be necessary.

Click to expand...

OK, I'll add that in. I haven't had a fender on mine for years, so I couldn't remember if that was necessary. I don't think I removed my shock, but the more space, the better.

im going to have to do this very soon,i have some pretty serious rust in my tank,thx for the nice instructions,one thing im wondering is this,is there a drain some where on the tank to get what fuel is in it out b4 i try and remove it?
im also told theres a kit i can buy to coat the inside of the tank to prevent this ,is there one thats better over another? ive called my local bike shop,and they sell one made by Yamaha for 20$ but theres more expensive ones they say,is there one i should use over another?

Yes, at the bottom just above the collector if you have stock exhaust.

I've used Kreem to good effect, but many are recommending a different product whose name I cannot recall.

Kreem comes in 3 parts - there's a washing solution, an etching acid to seal the rust in and finally a coating liquid that turns into a supple inside rubber-type thing. Some say they've seen that peel off after a time, I didn't.

The other product dries to a solid coat that looks silverish in appearance. I'm sure someone will chime in who knows its name.

I have used 4 different types of tank repair/sealer kits over the years. Eastwood makes one that has about 12 steps and looks similar to the Kreem kit but is better. It is really a hassle though with so many steps. Takes most of a day to use. POR or similar kits use a chemical (phosphoric acid) that converts rust to a inert coating. My favorite kit (and the one I recommend) is made by KBS Coatings and I used it on three tanks including my current Max. It uses a 3-step process. Whatever you chose, make sure the tank is spotless before applying the final coating and you follow instructions to the letter. The KBS is not a coating like Kreem but reacts with the metal to create a grey epoxy coating. You can buy in one, two or multiple tank kits.

I had to do mine a few weeks back,and its not the worst thing ive had to do,but it wasnt fun either.I had a ton of rust in my tank,took me 2 days to treat it with the 3 step kit,but im glad i did it

I just removed and replaced the fuel tank on my 97 vmax, i un-bolted the rear shocks from the top mounts letting the rear wheel drop 3 inches, it made it easier to remove the tank and the fender bolts without having to remove the rear wheel. i still had to un-bolt and lower the stock exhaust.

Dave

Good think I looked at this. The Haynes book says to remove the swingarm! I really didn't want to do that.

So I had the rear wheel off to mount a new tire and thought I may as well do the fuel tank now. It wasn't really that hard even for me, THE NOOB WRENCHER! :biglaugh:

I had purchased a newer tank and got it coated inside(big consumer radiator shop wanted over $150, took it to an industrial place they did it for $50!)

So now I have an extra tank with not too much rust, all I can see is some around the fill tube and the drain hole. If anybody wants it and plans to coat it let me know.

Well done! When I (eventually) get my bike, I'll have a larger tank (Exactrep) to fit - I reckon that's gonna be fun..

Now that I have two tanks I wonder if there would be any way to jury rig them together. Tie the one tank upside-down to sissy bar and have it gravity feed through some kind of tube into the main tank. Yeah, probably not.:rofl_200:

As for the removal of the tank, for my 1998 stock VMAX, I found I needed to remove the rear tire as, there is a medium philips screw holding a portion of the fender on. No way to remove it as the space is super-limited. I have big meat hooks for hands (and I didn't have a screwdriver short enough) to get in there. Even with all that said and done, for some odd reason, was still a chore to take the tank out. Quite un-cooperative.

AWESOME tutorial. Thank You. Keep it up!

Well, looks like I will be replacing a rusty gas tank too, even Evapo-rust wouldn't clean it up. Quick question, does the rear wheel half to come off? One write says it does, one says it's doesn't? What's the poop???

I don't know if it HAS to, but it's probably easier....

texas-ss-tornado said:

Well, looks like I will be replacing a rusty gas tank too, even Evapo-rust wouldn't clean it up. Quick question, does the rear wheel half to come off? One write says it does, one says it's doesn't? What's the poop???

Click to expand...

Take it off much easier ! Not really a bad job only takes about 30 minutes & its out.