Blocked tank water drain

Was about to post a question and then resolved it (good enough for now anyway). Bike has been deluged with rain and spray for three days and I noticed tank drain was blocked. Tried running wire from top but it always gets stuck before it gets to any blockage (only know that cos it still won't run all the way thru.); Tried vacuum pull and tried blowing it out ....no joy

Lifted the tank and tried reaming out obvious blockage - hard 'salt like' deposit from the water drain outlet. After about 1/2 hr careful twiddling drill bits I managed to get drill in water drain depth to same point as it goes in tank vent (tank vent isn't blocked) before it hits something solid. Tried wire and blowing out again and no joy......without knowing internals didn't want to drill deeper in case I hit fuel.

.....but seemed like the blockage stuff is salt type deposit; and it seemed to dissolve in lemon juice (or at least absorbed it). So I put plastic pipe onto drain exit and filled it with lemon juice and left it for an hour (pipe hanging up).......Then (with rag still stuffed in tank filler hole (Thank God !); just a slight blow cleared it out and sprayed lemon juice everywhere ....ran more lemon juice through from top and now seems OK.

Only questions I still have is whether the water drain nozzle at bottom left-hand side of bike is easy to remove ? Tried ginger tweak with 13 mm spanner but bottled out a full yank to avoid ripping something out that shouldn't be out...and anyone know what the internals look like between the drain hole and the outlet ?

Cheers
Paul

I am so glad you have the problem Paul, as i do as well, and perhaps an easy solution will appear, that doesn't require fruit!

Lemon? Ginger? Salt?

Down here we just use possum piss!

It's probably not salt but limescale unless you have especially salty rain in the UK. Limescale dissolves in acid like lemon juice, but you could also have used cleaning vinegar which is what I used when I had the same problem.
I also cleaned the nipple and used a metal wire in two directions, so from the drain down and from the nipple up. I didn't remove the nipple as like you I had no idea how its fixed and how the internals look. So far the drain has been working well again for at least 6 months or so.

I had this problem and it re-occurs, I drilled the hole out to make it bigger, first removed from tank, second time drilled in situ but bigger hole again.
The drain pipe passes through the tank and has a couple of sharp bends so running through a brake cable doesn't always work.

I am thinking of moving to a country with less rain....

I know of a few.

Antarctica is the driest continent. I don't know much about the motorcycle community there, though...

I hear they are a cold miserable bunch

...very little traffic to speak of. And no roos!

Ah, but inclement winds from its own engine room. Did I mention wind chill?

strangely, there is some evidence...

"...had taken a 350 cc Velocette to Mawson in 1960 and expected that other motorcycle enthusiasts had since done the same. What he didn’t expect was the number – some 35 bikes between 1960 and 1980. One was a 500 cc single cylinder Matchless, which stood out because of its long life, from 1968 to 1977."

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The Matchless G80 500 cc single at Mawson in 1968, with its upswept exhaust and muffler and South Australian number plate. Bruce McDonald is believed to be the rider.

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Malcolm Robertson on the Matchless with its MC01 number plate near Mawson in 1970.

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The Matchless with its MC01 number plate and sidecar with an easy chair from the rec-room. Mawson vicinity 1970.

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The Matchless motorcycle towing skier Neville Dippell on the sea ice at Mawson’s Horseshoe Harbour.

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Weather observer Phillip Jacquemin on 1953 model 650cc Triumph Thunderbird motorcycle, Mawson 1964

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Don Seedsman and the Triumph 650 cc near Mawson in 1964. The bike was originally taken south by ‘Snow’ Williams in 1962

see, put an Aussie somewhere unsupervised for long enough and...


oh, no idea on the drain Paul, sorry...

Two fumbs up!