Following some work on the petrol tank I tried to refit the hand change gate today, only to find that the threads are stripped in one of the blind inserts in the side of the tank. My guess is that there isn't enough wall thickness to fit a helicoil. Has anyone succesfully re-threaded one of these inserts? The tank has good paint and has just been lined with POR15 so I'm not keen to drill out and replace the insert. As there is no great load involved, and the other screw is good, I will probably refit the screw with epoxy (with hindsight I suspect this is how the screw was secured before removal). Anyone got a better idea?
As you say there's no great…
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Sorted (I think!)
I used a quick setting epoxy which should hold. Shortly after doing that I came up with the thought that turning a slightly oversize screw might also work. If the epoxy fails I will try that, although it might confuse a future owner.
The tax renewal note arrived last week, reminding me that the Model 18 has been in my garage almost a year. In that time I have only ridden it enough to diagnose magneto & carburettor problems (by substituting those items from a 1950 ES2, very few changes in 20 years). The mag had received a poor quality rewind in the past, no encapsulation of the windings and a "leaky" original slipring. Now rewound by someone I trust. Carb was worn and the bore was a size smaller than it should have been, so has been replaced by a new 276 from Burlen. Biggest problem was removing the old resin that was breaking down in the fuel tank. After several attempts it all came out, and without damaging the paintwork. There was a weep near one of the front mounting points so relined with POR15. A few more minor jobs to do, there is a reasonable chance of being back on the road by the end of the week.
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As you say there's no great load, I would try Milliput. Two pack epoxy putty. Not superstrong but won't dribble slowly out before it hardens.