Dropped the fuel tank - she's full of black crap in the tank.. before I get the fuel sender out, what's the right sealer to use on the top? The stuff that is there is black and gummy - not hard.. It also appears to be the same stuff that's sitting in the tank. I suspect the fuel sending unit sealer is breaking apart and is dropping into the gas tank.
I'll answer my own post. I got impatient and pulled the sender out.. the tarry substance appears to be a really heavy grease - I'm not sure why it was there because there is a rubber gasket around the inside of the sender that gets tightened down. So probably not necessary? Anyways, I blew into the fuel feeder tube and there was significant resistance. All of a sudden a huge hunk of brown solid material flew out and there was no more resistance! I'm pretty sure now that was my problem. Tank looked great other than the material deposits.. no sludge but definite huge hunks of some plant-like material. Hooked everything back up, filled tank with gas - and she's running perfect.
That's a little strange, Typically I do pack the top of the sending unit with a heavy grease, and it does get rubbery or even dried out over the long term, but I've never seen it get into the tank before. Reads like a DIY'er that didn't know what the purpose of the grease was for and mucked it on before putting the sender in place. It's just to prevent a small pond from forming on top of the lock ring and rotting the works out in short order.
haha.. likely. Based on what you say I'll re-grease! Thanks for the tip! This has been many months of battling.. and at the end of the day it was a carb needing cleaned (good practise every 20 years??), the fuel filter changed (crap from the tank), and the tank siphon being blown out (DIY what were you thinking!?). op:
