Ready to pull the battery and see whats what
OK, for starters the two bolts that secure the oil tank to the fender bracket have extricated themselves from their life of servitude. One did not get away...you can see it sitting there just to the right of the hole. Damn! look at all that fuckin' beach sand in there! That's what 4 years of beach racing gets you!
Upon further investigation and dis-assembly here is the culprit! The edge of the battery flag wore it's way through the oil tank! Ain't never seen that in 35 years of fuckin' with this shit...
Notice the shinny edge where the flag meets the rod...
Other side looks OK
Hey, what can I say? Welding would have required removal and cleaning inside and out...I cleaned the area with Brake-Clean on a rag and roughed it up a little...ready for goo...
Applied with a plastic knife
Cleaned up a bit...
Re-installed the offending battery flags and a fresh set of nuts, lock washers and bolts for the fender bracket...checked/tightened all of the oil tank hardware...9 bolts...
Now for a little insurance...
I cut a couple pieces of bicycle inner tube to length and then slit up the sides leaving an inch or two connected at the top
Slid them down the battery "hold down" rods with the slit facing the rear so as to allow for the flags. Hopefully a combination of re-installing the missing bolts, tightening the remainder of the tank hardware along with the makeshift rubber insulators will stop this from happening again...
Buttoned it all up, added a quart of oil and all is right with the world...for now...
