By the way, I'm in the SE Wisconsin, USA part of this earth.
Keeping in mind here that I'm the greenest of Norton novice's: when I got my father's bike after he passed (Interstate 750), I dropped it off at a Harley repair shop. A basic greaseball shop, looked like they had some decent guys, knowledgeable. And they were, could spot a rube like me instantly, took my money for not much of anything. Anyway, I actually ran the bike for a bit. Wrist bones actually ached after a ride from the heavy vibrations (but I hope to get that all sorted out later). Began fouling out on me. Here's what I (eventually) found out, and please recall I never met another Norton owner at that time (i.e. no knowledge of potential/KNOWN tank issues): to late, I drained some fuel out of the cocks into a clear glass jar because of ongoing problems. At the bottom, under about 2" of pure, clear fuel (looked clear as water) I found a finger thick, ugly assed black WORM of a substance. Obviously much heavier than the fuel, it was very distinctly seperated from the fuel while maintaining it's own liquid state. When shaken up, it would instantly settle back into it's own chemical consistancy. Ergo, even though a novice rookie... I was able to decide that what I was looking at was 'leeched' fiberglass epoxy and/or resin. I think I am in one of only 2 or 3 spots in the USA federally FORCED to use this ethanol AND 'reformulated' gas/petrol. The fuel near instantly F'd up the tank. Due to it's heavier composition, this resin (or epoxy? both?) would accumulate at the bottom of the tank after being shut down, which obviously allowed it to be sucked into the carbs (which are a mystery to me by the way) immediately upon start up. That, in turn, burning dirty, fouling the plugs. Literally would look like a thin black plastic coating covering the electrodes within a single mile.
By the way, I guess I'm being careful to write this very clearly in the hopes that it becomes clear to some future reader exactly what and how this destruction of the tank occurs, at least as it did with mine.
Anyway, this above mentioned Harley shop (now out of business) poured SOMETHING into the tank. Whatever it was, was a complete failure. I've slowly, ever-so-PAINstakingly removed 97% of that crap, and will post a pic when I get that figured out. Prior to all this trouble, the bike did indeed seem to run quite well enough, mechanically, though again... I'm not that experienced.
So, as I see it, I need to:
1.) seal my father's Interstate tank
2.)replace the fuel lines with in-line filters
3.)clean possibly rebuild the Amals (which are black magic boxes to me)
4.)clean plugs
5.)device a quick fuel drain plug so the bike doesn't even sit a week with fuel in the tank (what a PITA!!)
So, perhaps over simplified, but that's how I see it. Then, enjoy the bike as I learn a LOT about it, enough until I feel comfortable with a complete restoration somewhere down the road.
But it all seems to hinge on that damned tank, hence my trying to develop a 'permanent' fix. If any of you guys are in my area, would love to get together, try to brainstorm an awesome solution to share with Norton Nation. Now, I forget who wrote it, but one of you guys (above) mentioned that today's MODERN epoxy AND resin will withstand ethanol. How positive are you of this? Seems like a tank could be split open...
Is it hard to locate a steel interstate tank for purchasing???