Rubber Tank Mount

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Alot of Japanese, British and French bikes have those funny little rubber mounts under the tank.  I wanted to reuse the OEM tank mounts on my Motobecane tank, but I had to get a bit creative making that happen.

Here is what I am describing.  You can see the half cup mounts, that typically ride on rubber pucks on the frame.

So I took some measurements, and found the GM Hood Adjusters would do the trick quite nicely!  I like finding things to use on my projects that others might be able to find easily.  Most auto parts houses can get these for you, or in my case, I found them on the shelf at Fastenal.  At $1.33 each, they would work quite well.

I went to work on the lathe, making a nice mount for them to nestle into the fuel tank with.

If you don’t have access to a lathe, you can make these with some tubing and a couple of 5/16-18 bungs.  Always try to think of what you can do using the tools you have/have access to.  I built my first major project with only a 110 Flux Core Welder, a Hand Drill, and an Angle Grinder…  Having the tools is nice, but not required. 

I trimmed down the bolts on the Hood Adjusters, as my mount would be narrow and they were a bit too long.

It goes together a little something like this:

It fit into the tank cups perfectly!

 
Got the front tank mount onto the frame.  Had to make the mount angled to clear my coil mounts, and I plan to run my wiring through the frame here.
 
Then onto the rear tank tab.  I started with some flat stock.  I don’t care for a a flat stock tab over a round tube, so some work had to be done.
First, I got the tank fitted up where I wanted it.
Then I took some flat stock, and shaped it over my vice.  You can do this yourself, by setting the vice jaws a bit narrower than the material, and working it over with a Ball Peen Hammer.
 
 Starting to take shape.
 
 

Drill a hole, and weld it onto the tank.  I’ll add a 5/16-16 Bung under this tab onto the frame.  I usually leave this hole a bit larger to compensate for tank alignment and position.  My tank in particular is NOT perfect left/right so I will have to cheat the eye a bit.

So there ya have it.  I did make my coil mounts at the same time, I’ll be running 2 Dyna Coils.  They are small, pack a punch, and will work well with my rephased engine going in this thing.   The best part – both coils will be completely hidden under the tank.    All in all, this was a good productive day on an otherwise very slow going build…