Triumph Repair: fuel sending unit 1972 triumph spitfire, car exhaust pipe, radiator shops

Question
Hi, I just removed my gas tank from the 1972 triumph spitfire and the fuel sending unit. I wish to clean the inside of the tank and was wondering how to go about it.  Also, the float on the fuel sending unit is half full of some liquid, i assume its gas. Is this normal .  Thank you in advance,  Wayne...

Answer
Hi Wayne,
The float is bad and needs to be replaced.

Some radiator shops use to clean fuel tanks but you will have to call several to find one, not many do it any more.

We use to clean tanks by removing the tank and remove the sending unit and put about a half inch of diesel fuel in the tank with some nuts and bolts and suspend the tank by a rope or such and shake the tank back and forth to allow the nuts and bolts to slide across the bottom. This will break loose most of the loose rust and trash in the bottom of the tank. We would then flush out the tank with water and examine it and if it needed a second cleaning we just repeated it. Then we would hang the open neck on a car exhaust pipe and let the car run to heat the tank and evaporate all of the left over water and diesel fuel.

Some tanks required that we make a plate to cover the hole where the sending unit was to do the job. It was not as good as a radiator shop could do but it worked ok.
Howard