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Good Morning & Happy Monday fellow Sportster nerds!
I came across this '94 5 spd tank on craigslist for $50, and love the look of the tank. Its smaller tank than the tank I currently have on my 05 XL883L, so I was hoping it would give me that extended/open frame tube kind of look. I knew when getting the tank that it would not line up with the mounts currently on my bike, but thought me and a buddy could figure it out. He had a couple ideas, but nothing solid or really trustworthy, so I wanted to open up a thread to see if anyone here could help me out. TYIA.
The photos below are of the same tank I got, just not the actual one. Mine is luckily in far nicer shape. The photos of the bike are mine as it currently sits.
I was hoping someone might know of any easy and quick way to make this work. If not, how would you all go about this? Its my first time fitting a different tank to a bike. I can take any photos, measurements etc and post here - so please let me know.
I realize there isn't much here to go on, but I was hoping this could be a starting point for my project. I would be more than happy to do a write up, step by step how to type of deal for future use for others as well. I've done some searching online, found a guy who built some custom brackets out of scrap metal, but that is the closest thing I have found so far. Any and all ideas are appreciated.
The bolt holes will line up fine but the issue will be the petcock. The smaller thank has the petcock on the right side of the bike and your original has it on the left side. With the petcock on the right, you won't clear the carb when you set the tank on the frame and bolt it down so you're going to have to lift the tank.
You can buy tank lift kits from a bunch of vendors and they'll look cool or whatever but at the end of the day, all it is is an extension of the mount and you can make it yourself if you have an angle grinder and a drill. Takes a whole of 10 minutes. I think you need to lift 4" to clear the carb if I remember correctly but you can measure that yourself. This is 6" because I stuffed the wiring in the tunnel to clean it up.
Also...if you use the petcock that came with the small tank, you'll need to cap off the vacuum fitting on the carb. Your factory petcock that came on the bigger tank is vacuum operated. It won't flow fuel even in the on position if it's not getting suction from the carb. If you keep that same petcock and use it on the small tank, just run the line back where it came from. If you use the petcock that came with the small tank, it doesn't flow on vacuum, just gravity fed so cap the fitting on the carb that you are no longer using.
Hope this makes sense...if you have any questions, let me know. I'm in OC, not too far from you at all.
Last edited by maverick31210; Aug 7, 2017 at 02:12 PM.
Hey Mav - Great advise man. The carb move is great detail, appreciate that. I can go ahead and order a tank lift no biggie, however I swear that looking at this the bolts will not line up. Check out this photo - see how the tank has this extension piece for the bolt up? The older tank does not have it - which is where I am running into these issues..
Hey Mav - Great advise man. The carb move is great detail, appreciate that. I can go ahead and order a tank lift no biggie, however I swear that looking at this the bolts will not line up. Check out this photo - see how the tank has this extension piece for the bolt up? The older tank does not have it - which is where I am running into these issues..
Your bike looks rad dude! Where in OC are you at?
Thanks man.
Got ya...didn't see that in your pics, I thought it was the larger king tank that comes on the 02s. You should be able to apply the same concept of lengthening the mounts using brackets. Same thing that I mentioned about the front mount. That's basically what that bracket on the back of the tank is anyway.
Hey everyone just following up on this. So I have been working with a new people, and outside of welding to the tank ( so the brackets dont pivot ) - which defeats the purpose of an old original tank - we just cannot come up with an easy, workable option that doesnt eff the tank up. Not sure if anyone else has any ideas?
The Sporty was COMPLETELY redesigned from the frame up for the 2004 model year. There is very little that is bolt-up interchangeable from 2003 and earlier with 2004 and later models.
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How do I fit this previous gen Gas Tank?
