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Hello everyone! First I just want to say that I am so glad I found this site! . Anyway I am trying to get an old bike I bought from a family friend running. I just cleaned out the carb, and I am about to replace the plug, some of the fuel lines, the battery and the air filter. But I have run into a problem; my friend sold me the bike and literally moved the next day, and forgot to give me the key. The ignition part of the story has been taken care of, but the gas tank is shut and locked. So I was wondering if i could simply switch out the tank, and if so where do I get one that will fit?, if not, is there any way to get into the tank and convert the lock?. Any help with this would be very much appreciated!

Your tank really does not have a lock, that is there are no tumblers in it. Any old key should open it up. You might try pressing down on the cap while turning it with the key. I have seen the mechanism get gunked up and stick, that happened on my 650 H-1. What I did was take a small finishing nail (since I didn't have a proper pin punch) and drive out the small roll pin that attaches it to the hinge. Once you do that the cap will come off and you will see 2 small phillips head screws, take them out and you can pull the works apart and free up and lube the works. Just be careful when you pull it apart because there are a couple of small springs that can shoot out and they are a biatch to find if they escape.

Oh and if you need to get a replacement key you can get the number off the ignition switch and contact www.key-men.com/index.html
They can cut you a new key for around $20.00

Post edited by: The Gringo, at: 2007/12/21 07:36

Thank you Gringo, you advise worked perfectly; all I had I stuck my car key in the fuel tank lock and it popped right open!

Curses! an answer leads to another question. I was able to get the fuel tank open, now it seems there is some rust inside the tank. How can I deal with the rust, or will it be fine if I just fill it up with gas?

only if you want to fill your carbs up with rust


There are many threads about rust removal and about a thousand ways to do it.... you can fill your tank up with vinegar toss in a handful of washers and shake for an hour or 5... you can coat it with navel jelly or another light acid...you can spend outrageous money on a Kream kit, there are SOOOO many ways to fix this problem.

Use the search bar and see what you can find...I bet you will find a method to your liking.

No matter how you clean the tank, make sure to run an inline filter... that will keep all the remaining crud out of your carbs.