More IMS 4.5 installs

Received my black tank yesterday and had it installed in 45 minuits. Tank fit great and no missing parts. The only concern I have is the radiator. Original shroud supported outside of radiator and now no support. I wonder if this will be a problem , maybe if I install radiator guard. Maybe it will not be a problem but radiator does seem to have alot of movement going down the road - anyone with a Safari tank have comment on this? I filled the tank and ran it down the road as hard as it would run - no head shake and I think this is going to be the best mod ever for this bike. I did the TAT last year and fuel range was my biggest issue.

I would like to thank Shewolf , Muddy Rabbit and IMS for keeping this thing going.

Called IMS today about my tank not fitting. Spoke to Steve who said IMS has not heard of any issues. I mentioned the discussions here and ADV rider.

He suggested attaching the rear of the tank first and then attaching the front. I attached the rear without the metal washer fittings and was able to get it to go on. Then I attached the front and was still able to use the washer fitting.

So far so good. The tank is mounted!

Now for the seat. Steve said you need to give it a good push from the rear until it "pops" into place. Tried it and it worked. However, it was clear the seat was stressed. I could actually see it bulge.

I decided to mount the plastics and see if it would fit. Tried to force the seat on but it wouldn't go. It rides up on the rear fender.

Two possible solutions. Shave the rear of the seat and drill out the holes in the frame where the seat attaches. Or, try to shave the front of the seat enough to make it fit. This seems more difficult since there are so many contact points. In either case the seat needs to be modified.

Seems to me when a company builds a product they should make it work properly. In my line of business we can't afford to make errors. I guess this is the bane of a small niche market.

Curious how the IMS 3.1 tank has been fitting. I may have to go that route.

Steve said if I can't get it to fit I would need to return it. No other solutions.

yaw wrote:

Shave the rear of the seat and drill out the holes in the frame where the seat attaches. Or, try to shave the front of the seat enough to make it fit. This seems more difficult since there are so many contact points. In either case the seat needs to be modified.

I've posted this on this thread as well as the one on ADV. Take a razor blade and shave a little bit of plastic out of the front slot on the seat pan so the seat can be pushed a little farther forward. This will allow you to get the seat bolts in. It takes about 3 minutes and you'll be good to go.

IMS has been making tanks for a LONG time, this is not their first product. If this was from a guy who had just finished a plastic forming class at his local community college, I would expect this, but not from IMS or Acerbis. They should have measured, and measured again, and measured again, and had things loose, instead of having to force things in to place, grind parts to make things work. This feels like it was rushed badly, once they found out about the pent up demand for the product.

I guess I will go home and curse some more, trying to figure out where to grind to make this work, as I want the capacity. I might take the seat apart and cut away the back of the foam so it will fit. The fit and finish of the bike is so great, and now I need to hack in to it, like I had to do with my KLR. Sigh.

John

yaw wrote:

Seems to me when a company builds a product they should make it work properly. In my line of business we can't afford to make errors. I guess this is the bane of a small niche market.

You don't need to hack in to anything. Just have someone press down and forward on the seat until the holes line up.

I can always call my neighbor over whenever I work on my bike, but I feel I shouldn't have to! I am not a big fan of having the bolts/seat under a stress they weren't designed for. Am I being picky? I don't think so, I just want them to fit well out of the box.

John

kjharn wrote:

You don't need to hack in to anything. Just have someone press down and forward on the seat until the holes line up.

Ok got the tank mounted. Here is what it took:

1) Mount the back side of the tank first. Push forward as much as possible. I had to file out one of the holes. Was able to use the original washers.

2) File seat where it mounts to tank (thanks trav72!) Used a carpet knife- took 2 minutes. Take the mounting pin off the tank and only remove as much of the seat plastic as you need to. The limiting factor is the large round section on the pin. It will finally bottom out on the seat mount.

3) File the cross member of the frame where the seat bolts in. I made these holes a little longer toward the back of the bike. The seat fits very snugly against the back fender but it works- doesn't bind the seat.

I just filled it with 4.8 gallons.

Got home. IT LEAKS @&*$%^###! I guess the tank is going back to IMS Monday.

The brass fitting on the left wing is leaking. Looks like it wasn't sealed properly.

yaw wrote:

Ok got the tank mounted. Here is what it took:

1) Mount the back side of the tank first. Push forward as much as possible. I had to file out one of the holes. Was able to use the original washers.

2) File seat where it mounts to tank (thanks trav72!) Used a carpet knife- took 2 minutes. Take the mounting pin off the tank and only remove as much of the seat plastic as you need to. The limiting factor is the large round section on the pin. It will finally bottom out on the seat mount.

3) File the cross member of the frame where the seat bolts in. I made these holes a little longer toward the back of the bike. The seat fits very snugly against the back fender but it works- doesn't bind the seat.

I just filled it with 4.8 gallons.

Got home. IT LEAKS @&*$%^###! I guess the tank is going back to IMS Monday.

The brass fitting on the left wing is leaking. Looks like it wasn't sealed properly.

Sorry that your tank is leaking.....now I"m concerned about those brass fittings that I am waiting on. I talked to one of the IMS guys about installing the fittings, he said they just screw into the bottom wings of the tank (just said to use some pipe tape on the threads). We'll see how that goes.......

Brown truck delivered my Blue tank today!

Probably install tomorrow...

gediehl4 wrote:

Brown truck delivered my Blue tank today!

Probably install tomorrow...

Can't wait to see the pics. Hint Hint...

OK, I got the tank installed. I found out that you need to channel your inner SheWolf and grind on the tongue (of the seat) and grind some more! Get out your Dremel tool and grind and test fit and grind and test fit and then it will mostly fit enough, to where the seat won't bow. You will also need to grind out the seat where the post sticks out of the tank. That will allow the seat to slide forward enough to allow it to fit. I took out at least 1/8" of an inch of plastic to get it so the bolts could fit. I will probably go back and grind out the holes larger eventually.



I also ground out some of the rear seat bracket, and you can see how it is not aligned perfectly, sigh.



so now here came the fun part. I bungie netted the XD helmet to the rear rack, attached a black marker to the key ring with the key in the ignition, wallet in back pocket, small camera in my front pocket and WALKED my bike 4 blocks to the gas station. A neighbor pulled out of his driveway and drove up next to me going "this isn't what I think it is, is it?" Thinking I had run out of gas. I explained it to him that I had a new tank, and wanted to mark how much fuel is in the tank from dry. He understood. Looked over the bike and said he had a 79 Rsomething125 back in the day. He and his wife drove off. I pushed the bike to the pump, and no one else seemed to give me a second look.

One gallon, mark, two gallons, mark, three gallons, mark, four gallons, mark and filled.



and in the end, the almost pouring out total came to:



I probably could have put in a little bit more, but hey, this works.

I put my helmet on, gloves, and rode home in my t-shirt and jeans. I felt like such a poser.

Definitely a pain to install, but now, it is there. I will be taking it back off soon (once I burn down some fuel) to install a loud horn, and wire up my heated grips and the Powerlet socket I got from Eastern Beaver.

Yes, this is the first aftermarket tank I have installed, and was expecting a more streamlined install that what I experienced. I hope to hell this thing doesn't leak.

John

Awesome!! Now...that would explain why my tongue is so sore. Damn you John!

I don't think you need to grind the seat tongue. My seat bound on the post and the front of the seat itself. Since the seat is pushed back in relation to the frame, the tongue is actually not reaching all the way under the frame. It is not binding there. It seems to engage enough though to hold the seat tight. So by grinding the tongue I think you will be simply weakening it with no advantage. Hope this helps.

yaw wrote:

I don't think you need to grind the seat tongue. My seat bound on the post and the front of the seat itself. Since the seat is pushed back in relation to the frame, the tongue is actually not reaching all the way under the frame. It is not binding there. It seems to engage enough though to hold the seat tight. So by grinding the tongue I think you will be simply weakening it with no advantage. Hope this helps.

+1
I wouldn't grind anything. If you can't torque it into place, call ims & have them send another. It is tight, to be sure, but it should fit without having to cut something.

I think Yaw gave some good advice when he suggested putting in the lower bolts first, pushing the tank all the way forward. Then pry the front bracket back until the hole lines up. Seems like everything should fit, then.

I tried that first, removing material where the post fits...and still wouldn't fit. I ground out around the tongue, and test fit, and it got better. I had to grind more on the tongue to get it where the rear bolts aren't overly stressed. I was concerned about weakening the tongue too, which is why I didn't go there first, but ended up having to do it. So, it looks like everyone's tank is just a bit different. Some work dandy, and others, require more work to make it fit.

John

yaw wrote:

I don't think you need to grind the seat tongue. My seat bound on the post and the front of the seat itself. Since the seat is pushed back in relation to the frame, the tongue is actually not reaching all the way under the frame. It is not binding there. It seems to engage enough though to hold the seat tight. So by grinding the tongue I think you will be simply weakening it with no advantage. Hope this helps.

Crooked Creek wrote:

gediehl4 wrote:

Brown truck delivered my Blue tank today!

Probably install tomorrow...

Can't wait to see the pics. Hint Hint...

Done! http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15976356#post15976356

Can't wait to see the pics. Hint Hint... [/quote]

Done! http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15976356#post15976356[/quote]

Thanks Blue it is

The blue tank really looks good on the bike! I would buy one tomorrow if I wasn't worried about the stories I keep hearing about the secondary fuel pumps not being able to keep up at highway speeds...

Haven't heard that one before....must be the posters at ADV.

foofighter wrote:

The blue tank really looks good on the bike! I would buy one tomorrow if I wasn't worried about the stories I keep hearing about the secondary fuel pumps not being able to keep up at highway speeds...

I don't think that's the case at all. I think my vacuum pump almost works to well. There is a lot of fuel movement in the tank. My only question is, is it to good? If that's possible. There seems to be a whole lot of splashing fuel which makes me wonder how much is actually getting into the pump. I have run it so the pump is not longer submerged in fuel and the bike continues to run. So maybe I'm just being a bit paranoid.

Dropped it from less than walking speed in a rock garden on Saturday. One of those tipping, foot misses, tips slow but you cant catch it things. Banged into the left lower wing with a small boulder. Scratched but looked ok otherwise. When I got it home, it looks like I have a new very small leak from the brass fitting. Pics to follow. Doesn't look like fitting itself got hit. Drained the tank and will take it off to try and re tighten the fitting. hope that is all it takes...

This was not a big crash by any means. The rock it fell on was ugly, but typical of what could happen any day off road. Hoping it just loosened up a bit with the blow. Leak is like 2-3 drops an hour, but smelly and not what I want.

emptied the tank and tried to get to the fittings in the wing from the inside. No dice. I had assumed there was a locking nut on the inside but that is not the case. The fitting is just threaded into the bottom of the wing, and was a bit loose. I carefully screwed it out and applied some lithium tape then gently bolted it back in, but it still feels just a bit looser than I would like. Probably needs some sealant on the threads. Not sure what. I'll look at an auto parts store tomorrow.

As a guy who spent years as boat rigger ,designing systems so they would not fail at sea, I'm a little disappointed that this fitting is simply threaded into the plastic. Fine for around town, but I would not want to adventure ride with it that way. Needs a fix.

Just got off the phone with IMS. They said that adhesive or sealant was unlikely to work as "the plastic is so porous" and that the fittings are molded in rather than attached after the tank was formed. They said that I could ship the tank back to them but that they were unsure whether or not it would be covered under warranty do to the tip over... I can see their point I guess, but I am pretty disappointed.

When I pulled the tank last night, i confirmed that the fitting itself had not been impacted. Not a scratch on the bottom of the wing.

I guess I'm on my own.

Well, I hope your money is returned. The situation is similar to when I bought my last Motorola cell phone. After 5 days the screen cracked. I went back to Verizon for a new one but they told me it was owner abuse. I said hey," I haven't done anything but open and close it". They said " when you close it do you just let it snap shut". I said yah, and they said you have to close it softly. I said hey, everybody closes their cell phone that way, the phone should be designed to withstand that. Well they told me to go fuck myself and I suspect IMS will tell you the same thing. Obviously the tank is not designed to survive a tip over, so getting a new one on warranty is not going to fix the problem.