[mag]

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I'm in the exact same boat. We both run the risk of jamming up the fuel pump.

Unfortunately, the only proper solution seems to be removal of the tank, and re-lining it. It sucks that people don't store these bikes properly and cause future headaches/cost to owners.

I'm going to live with mine by changing my fuel filters often. An inexpensive bandaid until i'm prepared to pay or pull the tank myself.

 

[mag]

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that's a good point, Paul, re: sourcing a better tank

 

[mag]

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exavid wrote: My mechanic told me the filter would stop big chunks, but not fine/sandy sediment. It seems that removing/re-lining or replacing the tank is quite excessive. Can i really get away with just keeping fresh filters without buggering up the carbs?

As long as your fuel filter is upstream from your pump and carbs, there shouldn't be any rust getting into anything but the filter. For the short term, I'd just put an over sized filter in the line and carry a spare. For the long term two alternatives seem viable to me, one is to haunt eBay and the various bike salvage outfits on the net to find a better tank; the other is to pull your tank, sand or bead blast it or chemically remove the rust and coat it.  There are several good fuel tank sloshing compounds on the market, they are used in aviation too. Cleaning and coating your tank should do the job but you might want to do a little light poking with a sharp scribe around the worst rusted parts of the tank to make sure there's still enough metal left. You don't want the thing to crack or start pin-holing. Small pinholes will seal with sloshing, but larger weak spots might cause the tank to fail in a big way.