# How To Repair Your Classic Bicycle Tank



## partsguy

Welcome to Stephen G.'s "The Complete Guide to Reparing A Bicycle Tank For Dummies" 

Today's specimen, the deluxe tank from a 1966 Huffy Silver Jet. Like many tanks, several decades pass by and things corrode, often leaving your tank dead completely and void of any functionality whatsoever.

This is where I started; the original tank for the bike. It was stripped bare with the only thing identifying it as a deluxe Silver Jet tank was the switch plate. I tried for more than a year to find the parts to complete it and the only thing I found was a rough headlight. It is cases such as these where replacing the tank ("Upgrading") would be a better option. Otherwise, it would cost a significant amount of money and a great amount of time. Two things a college kid such as I, just cannot swallow.




















That chance came about a month ago when a tank showed up on eBay and I bid something fierce. The tank was in pretty good shape and fairly complete. The only thing missing was the horn and the mounting hole on the plate.







And as luck would have it, a lesser complete tank showed up. This one had a little less rust, the horn (standard Delta I think), better chrome, and a better plate.




_*TO BE CONTINUED...*_


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## partsguy

Ok, so they arrived and here we are. Nothing works. Big suprise! First, start with the simple things; Batteries! Make sure the batteries you use are NEW 1.5v "D" Cell batteries.




If nothing works, lets break things down into "baby steps". Everything is a sytem, a department of its own. We seperately test the horn, lights, switches, and wire connections.

First, the horn. Take the wire leading from the horn and touch it to the positive terminal on the battery. Then, touch the negative terminal on the battery to any metal part of the horn. If the horn honks, great, if it doesn't, then there are one of two two things wrong with it. Either a bad connection or a dead battery/not enough batteries. Connections could be loose or dirty. Depending on the horn, you could try taking it apart and sanding the contacts then checking the wires and repairing as necessary. As for the batteries, it would either be dead or you don't have enough. Most horns for bicycles are powered by one or two "D" cells as mentioned earlier. Though one should usually suffice for this purpose. If you cannot get the horn to function, look into getting a replacement.





We now move on to the lights. Start simple by testing the simplest of things; the bulbs! If the bulbs do not work, then get them replaced. Many hardware stores should have the lights you need. Just check the camping supplies or flash light aisles. Also, be sure to check your mom & pop shops, as they probably have more of what you need, big box stores not so much.

An example of a rusty and dirty light. This can be fixed with a bit of patience but, as said, I don't have patience with my time being limited, so I upgraded! I had two of them anyhow.




If the new bulbs do not work, then we have connection problems here as well. Use fine sandpaper or fine steel wool (try the sand paper first!) to clean the battery contacts and the light bulb sockets. Then blow some compressed air through the light to get any loose particles out. Put the blubs and batteries back in and try again. If it works, great, if not, then repeat the process.

Try putting the tank back together and try it out. You may need to ground the tank or establish a temporary route to the negative battery terminal. This is because the tanks are usually grounded to the bike. If you still get nothing, then we can narrow it down to the obvious; the wires and switches.




Check the switches and make sure all the tabs are straight and making contact with each other when in the "ON" position and go back when in the "OFF" position. If you find that something is bent, see if the switch comes apart. Most likely though, the switch cannot be taken apart. GENTLY use a small phillips screwdriver, butterknife (don't let the wife catch you!) or some other implement and work the terminals back into shape. Test the switches to see if they work.

Now for the last part; the wires. Most likely, your tank still retains its original wiring harness which is probably about 50 years old at least. As with anything else that age, things can start to crumble and fall apart. So you can try replacing all the wires OR if your wires were salvageable like mine, then just check all the connecting points. Start by undoing ALL of the wire nuts and see if the wires are coming apart or if the connections appear loose. If they appear loose, then tighten them up and put a new nut on. If the wires are coming apart, either replace the wires at that connection OR simply use a pair of wire cutters and snip off the broken pieces, strip a little wire out and redo the connection. Repeat this step for all wire nut points. Also, check to see if a wire is pinched or kinked. If this is the case, the wire is probably broken and needs to be replaced.

_*TO BE CONTINUED...*_


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## partsguy

Now, after putting your tank back together it should look a little like this:



















As you can see, most of these steps are pretty straight forward. Good look and like Dannis Gage says, "Remember to Always Honor the Timeless Classics!"


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## jd56

Thanks, Stephen.
1.5v continuity for the dummy will help those that are lost. I have some knowledge with 120v house current but these smaller voltage components was a challenge.
Simple explainations and clear to the point. Basically a flashlight. Thanks.

Now the task , for me anyway, is to repair or find a repalcement tray. 
As in your picture example of your battery tray, mine has one side that has corroded to the point where there are no contacts for that one battery. This tray cannot be salvaged 
I have found that almost all my tanklight battery trays have at least one side that was corroded from a left-in original battery.






There was a post here on removing rust with "evapo rust" or something. 

http://thecabe.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?24685-removing-rust-in-light&highlight=removing+rust

Will this work on these trays?
I can't see a way to repair it, hence the need for a replacement tray.
The search continues.


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## partsguy

You have to wonder what people were smoking back then! "These will work just fine 50 years from now!"

I had an even worse problem with a Delta-built tail light bucket from a 1963 Silver Jet. I would spend about $150 and maybe more to find another original, so I tried the electrolyte bath. Here is what I started with:








Progress:










Still fixable, right?




Soaked overnight:




The remains:







Switch fell out:




Why can't I have anything nice? Well, I'm not throwing this out yet. Because with the metal remains I can have some of these puppies fabricated! There is just enough metal and lettering on the bottom to make a really authentic looking reproduction. As much as I don't like using repops, you sometimes have no choice. I think should also add that with the simplicity of this part, one can be made for a fraction of the cost of an original!


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## partsguy

Oh and jd56, is that a Murray headlight? Looks like it. That tray cannot be salvaged. You would be better off finding a parts bike or finding a small piece of sheet metal and some tin snips and make one.


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## jd56

classicfan1 said:


> Oh and jd56, is that a Murray headlight? Looks like it. That tray cannot be salvaged. You would be better off finding a parts bike or finding a small piece of sheet metal and some tin snips and make one.




No actually that is a Columbia C battery tray, I figured it was toast.
But the Murrays are just as bad on some of my tanklight trays, hence the reason my signature here lists the Astroflite trays as the top priority part needed. I have a number of members looking for me and hopefully they will turn up something. Not able to hit all the swap meets the added eyes is appreciated

I have three Murrays with this side by side D cell battery tray that are either gone or rusted on one side past repair. 
The search continues.

Thanks again for your tutorial Classicfan1

I still wonder if it is safe to use the Evapor Rust product on partially rusted trays without damaging the contacts. The earlier post mentioned it was safe to use with painted surfaces.

John


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## partsguy

jd56 said:


> No actually that is a Columbia C battery tray, I figured it was toast.
> But the Murrays are just as bad on some of my tanklight trays, hence the reason my signature here lists the Astroflite trays as the top priority part needed. I have a number of members looking for me and hopefully they will turn up something. Not able to hit all the swap meets the added eyes is appreciated
> 
> I have three Murrays with this side by side D cell battery tray that are either gone or rusted on one side past repair.
> The search continues.
> 
> Thanks again for your tutorial Classicfan1
> 
> I still wonder if it is safe to use the Evapor Rust product on partially rusted trays without damaging the contacts. The earlier post mentioned it was safe to use with painted surfaces.
> 
> John




Never tried evapo-rist, so I can't say. Although you can see an electrolyte bath worked wonders!


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## jd56

Although you can see an electrolyte bath worked wonders!

Looked like that bath desolved quite a bit. 
I'm going to try this Evapor-rust stuff on the toasted tray and see if it will remove the scale. If it desolves as in your project then lesson learned.

Thanks ClassicFan1


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## partsguy

jd56 said:


> Although you can see an electrolyte bath worked wonders!
> 
> Looked like that bath desolved quite a bit.
> I'm going to try this Evapor-rust stuff on the toasted tray and see if it will remove the scale. If it desolves as in your project then lesson learned.
> 
> Thanks ClassicFan1




The electrolyte only dissolved the rust. But some of the gunk in there was not rust. In fact, it was the remains of the batteries!


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## MaxGlide

Evaporust works so well for me I bought a ten gallon pail of it! 

One thing I recommend to extend the life of the solution is to soak it for as long as needed then TAKE THE PART OUT OF THE SOLUTION carefully and slowly trying to leave as little dissolved rust in the solution as possible.  Then use a toothbrush to scrub away the dissolved rust, rinse with water then put back in the solution. You get more use from the solution this way.

The good thing about it is you can submerge the whole part, light horn into it with no damage to paint and it will get all the rust out of the contacts, cracks and such...... and it's organic... not chemical...


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## partsguy

A bump to help new members.


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