I’m figuring out how to mount the fuel tank. The plastic Can-Am Qualifier fuel tank has two rubber-cushioned, M6-thread mounts on the bottom. I needed to extend the reach of the bolt, so I ordered some stainless sleeve bolts from Amazon, and picked up some 3/4″ weldable steel channel at my local Ace hardware.
I mounted the two stubby sections of channel that just cleared the main frame tube, then offered the tank up to the bike. I was pleased to see that the bottom of the crossbar could sit directly on the lower of two headstock tubes, right in front of where it joined the main frame backbone.
Due to the way the tubes come together, the rear of the channel must have a deeper cutout than the front. I made up another single crossbar piece and began whittling it away with a grinder while periodically testing the fit.
You can see that my experimental cuts don’t conform to the backbone tube, but the bar contacts the top tube at the front and rear simultaneously, so I know the critical relationships. I will use some cardboard templates to ensure I have the proper radius cutouts for next attempt. Once I have a snug fit-up all around I can tack-weld it into place.
One of the fiddly parts of this was that I mounted the carb so that the throttle cable would extend up into this cavity on the right side of the bike for clearance. Fortunately, my eeyball calculations worked out. As you can see, there isn’t much wiggle room there, and the crossbar fortunately sits just where it needs to for the carb and cable to fit. I actually angled the carb flange inward a degree or two from vertical when I made up the manifold, and now I’m glad I did.
