Ok, tuna sandwich on wheat bread sure made for a good lunch, so let's finish up the assembly of the fuel tank.

With the vent line cut and bent into place in the last post we now need put together the pickup line. Start off with the provided silicon fuel tubing and attach it to the pickup tubing in the tank stopper assembly (picture #1). Cut the tubing about 1/3 of the way down the tubing and insert a section of brass tubing. Slip another section of silicon tubing on and then the clunk (picture #2). What comes next is a little bit of trial and error to get the proper length for the tubing. Look at diagram #3 and you can see that the clunk needs to go to the back bottom corner of the tank. You want the clunk to drop to this part of the tank, but not touch the back of the tank. Once you have it so the clunk sits here correctly then turn the tank over and the clunk should now fall to the same part of the tank upside down. As you turn the tank over and over the clunk should fall freely as you turn the tank over. If the clunk doesn't fall freely shorten up the tubing until you can rotate the tank and the clunk does move freely. Once you have the pickup line and the vent tube properly made we need to insert the stopper assembly into the tank. Make sure it's pushed all the way in and then tighten the screw to tighten the stopper on the tank. While you want the stopper firmly set in the tank make sure that you don't overtighten it. You can tell that you have the stopper tight enough if you can blow into the tank and not have any air leak back out around the stopper. It helps to mark your stopper assembly so you know which is which later on down the road (picture #5). That will do it for the assembly of the fuel tank. Next we'll mount it in the fuselage of the plane.

Getting ready to mount the tank I looked inside the tank compartment and reading the instructions really didn't say much about securing the fuel tank in place inside of the compartment. How we do this can vary from plane to plane, so I pretty much play it by ear on each plane. Looking inside the compartment I decided that gluing in a couple of braces at the back of the tank would be the best way to secure the tank in place without adding a lot of weight to the plane. Using some 1/4” balsa stock I cut 2 pieces the width of the compartment. Put the tank in the compartment to get an idea of where to glue them in place, just keep in mind that you'll want to add just a little bit so you have room to add foam in to cushion the tank. Once you know where to put it use a little bit of 5-minute epoxy to secure the wood in place (picture #5 and #6).

So now we have the tank assembled and the fuselage is ready to put the tank in. So I'm going to wrap up this post and we'll continue in the next post.

Pictures
1. Adding silicon fuel tubing to the pickup tubing in the stopper
2. Completed pickup line
3. Diagram to show how to position the clunk in the tank
4. Completed fuel tank
5. Label your tubing so you can identify it properly later
6. Use balsa stock to brace the tank in the fuel compartment
7. Use balsa stock to brace the tank in the fuel compartment

Until next time

Ken