Marbles Motors failed gas tank liner, then screwed up the warranty repair!

Planing to take the "Proof" photo's requested. There are a few out there that do this and some have done for a VERY long time.
This is a fraud by those of the burger King generation against one who will Not be swayed by the likes and the party has
many, many examples of this type. If you broke it then IT"S YOUR problem. Many claimed a defect just to get a free one
until they found a way to prove it and then the many claims abruptly stopped. Some do this as normal way of life. In a long ago former life he
sold batteries to dealers and discovered one case where one claimed "Warranty" for each sold to same. Sometimes this can go unnoticed
but is hard to take when you are starting out and find that the smiling dealer has been doing this to everyone he can. These days these MFR"s
are becoming VERY, Very common, so much so that it appears the honest man really is rare. Someone needs to build an App to scan for them.
So if we go ahead now we will follow our policy and if no one buys it's OK. At one time "Mike" controlled at least 95 % of the xs world wide market
and if it existed it passed thru his hands first. Not his intention but no one else would front up the cash to get it done. Many, many times the
Burger king sort would rant that they would go to the seller that they could talk to about their life story only to find out ( Maybe ) later that
the wonderful supplier who would listen and selling the desired item at about twice the price was actually buying it from Mike !
Mike is Not intending to get back inand we are happy to hear these stories from him rather than having to find them out our selves.
Sorry for the bad grammar but it's getting late and there is no point it telling that an honest mistake will get fixed and that a "Wish" item will show as
it probably has already been put in the pipe. Joe - someone old enough not to care if big money is made or not.
 
Trader. Why not advertise in the shop section. members will buy and word of mouth will get to Facebook and other sites and then clubs overseas, like the 650 club here. .........MikesXS started the same way, he had a price list

Start a thread with an introduction and a few pics...........having a brochure or just a printed list with prices that can be sent with a Pm or posted in the shop, every 3 days you can boot it back to the top of the forum...........

Just have to look at how gggGary has cornered the market with Tappet cover rings :sneaky:.........people could buy off ebay but they are more than content to buy from him.

A start is a start............No grips, its your choice.
 
650trader
Planing to take the "Proof" photo's requested.
Easy solution for a lot of the questions some of us have in a minds is for you to post a add in the classifieds with pics of your Commando mufflers. Several members have expressed interest in buying them. I'm sure you have PayPal so there would be no problem getting paid. You are a member and that is what the classifieds are for. I would more than welcome a new source for parts.
 
Petcock rebuilding

While waiting for the tank to either be saved or ruined, I needed to clean up the Petcocks and carburetors. Today it’s the Petcocks. When I pulled them apart they had what looked like rust colored dust in them, too fine of a powder to be caught by the screens, but I’m sure it’s the cause of my bike not running well the last day I had it out.
I threw all the parts in my ultrasonic cleaner and gave them a hot soak.
Both of my bikes have these aftermarket type 4 hole gaskets. They always get chewed up.
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I usually flip them over and reuse them. But I remembered @gggGary saying that he thinks the factory gaskets are superior, so I bought a couple from Partzilla. I’m kicking myself for not buying four of them because the gaskets are cheap but the shipping is not.
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I was surprised to see that they are visibly different in thickness. The OEM are thinner.
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I also gave some thought as to why these gaskets get so chewed up and as I was looking at the little flip lever , I realized that the piece is cast metal and the little kidney shaped cut out had rough , sharp edges on it, so I took my Dremel and a fine tip, fine grit stone and gave those edges a slight bevel, to smooth that transition out. I thought this was such a brilliant idea, then I read a post by @5twins that he’s been doing the same thing for some time now! :laugh2:
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Then I sanded all the flat surfaces on 1500 grit wet sandpaper until they were polished up and shiny.
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All cleaned up and ready to reassemble. The last time I assembled these, I had applied Hylomar on all the gasket surfaces and all the screws ( I really hate leaky petcocks) it was really messy and sticky cleaning all that up.
I decided to forgo all that and just try and have really clean, flat surfaces to mate up, and hope for a non leaky finish. I am amazed at how durable the paper gasket, I cut from Felpro paper, continues to be. It has had Hylomar on it, gas exposure, I cleaned it up with acetone and then soaked it in oil for 24 hrs. and it continues to feel tough and pliable and so much better than those tissue thin rubber gaskets.
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The last time around I applied a thin layer of silicone to the four hole gasket When I installed it, this time I applied a thin film of motor oil, I figured that would’ve hurt anything. All buttoned up and ready to go, and I’ve gotta say this thing is smooth as butter baby! :smoke:
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One down, one to go!
 
Yet another fine bob job.
Did both (later vacuum type) petcocks on Zall, used factory "valves", also my patented vacuum stem mod. reassembled and worked perfect. One had the factory perimeter seal on the selector the other a replacement o-ring, the factory seal leaked on use so changed to an o-ring from the fitz none metric o-ring assortment box. back together and no leaks. I also do the fine paper with soapy water on a flat surface clean up of the selector face, followed with a light buffing which rounds those edges.
 
Petcock rebuilding


I usually flip them over and reuse them. But I remembered @gggGary saying that he thinks the factory gaskets are superior, so I bought a couple from Partzilla. I’m kicking myself for not buying four of them because the gaskets are cheap but the shipping is not.
View attachment 176341
What I do is slather that rubber bit with Parker O-Lube. Get it cheap at Sky Geek. A little bit lasts a very long time. I believe dielectric grease works OK for this as well. I have resorted to it when I've misplaced my tube of Parker O-Lube. I learned "Parker Lube" in my trade.
 
I spoke to Randy Marble about my gas tank a couple weeks ago, he said yes he has the tank and he took it back to the guy that does the tank lining for him and the guy claimed the failure wasn’t his fault. Marble said he will still redo the lining and re paint the tank, so I’m still waiting.
In the meantime, I’ve been doing a little work on the XS2 , after rebuilding the petcocks I stripped the carbs down to clean and rebuild them, I managed to fuggle one of the butterfly screws :mad:, it had to be drilled out and I nicked the butterfly shaft a little. But I put it back together with a little thread locker and I think it’ll be ok. I also replaced the fuel lines with new and will add new fuel filters.
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Carbs are back together and today I threw them back on the bike.
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Before I put the carbs on, I pulled the spark plugs out and took a compression test. It sitting at 145lbs on the left cylinder and 148 on the right. Then I set the cam chain tension. Next up, I’m going to set the valves and clean my air filters.
My battery was shot. It died very suddenly, I’ve been buying AGM batteries that were pretty inexpensive. This time I popped for a slightly more expensive sealed wet battery. I’m hoping it’ll last a little longer, the inside of my garage in the summer is like a furnace. It’s hard on batteries.
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One last job done, I bought a couple extra voltmeters directly from China, took 10 days to arrive, not bad. This time I ordered a couple of white ones just to compare with the red ones I had originally. I also relocated the meter higher up by the handlebars. Pay no attention to the sloppy wires, they haven’t been tucked away yet.
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And that’s about where I’m at right now. My bike will be ready to go when I finally get my tank back......someday. :unsure:
-Bob
 
That white tank will fit? but the neighbors would faint dead away if they saw Bob ride a bike looking like that.
My neighbors on the other hand are used to seeing frankenbikes struggling back up the hill.
 
cough... coughbullsh&t... cough... Proper prep and it woulda' lasted forever... even longer than forever in your climate. ;)
You must have three things for corrosion to take place. That is a cathode, an anode, and electrolyte. If the liner is properly adhered to the inside of the tank, the electrolyte has been eliminated. Once that liner is breached, it's game over. The rust will take off and run. Since the @Mailman garage is hot, and the fuel contains ethanol (absorbs water), the perfect storm has been created. Yes, it was his fault.
 
You must have three things for corrosion to take place. That is a cathode, an anode, and electrolyte. If the liner is properly adhered to the inside of the tank, the electrolyte has been eliminated. Once that liner is breached, it's game over. The rust will take off and run. Since the @Mailman garage is hot, and the fuel contains ethanol (absorbs water), the perfect storm has been created. Yes, it was his fault.

Here’s fingers crossed for better luck on round two.
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