Hi, i have 1 key for the ignition and 1 key for the petrol tank. Ive managed to lose the tank key due to a dodgey key ring and have about 10 miles of fuel left to get to petrol station lol.

My first assumption is lock smith... but i dont have the cash for that at all. So next idea is use a screw driver to "break in" to the the tank . And thirdly i could unbolt the tank cap but doing this at the petrol station will be a lot of work/time.

What do you think is the best course of action?

(Its essential i get petrol tomorrow so i dont have much choice on buying a new cap as the cure just yet)

Cheers!

Unbolting the cap wont do anything either bud the lock will still be holding in the tank with the 2 prongs that come out when its locked.
Best bet is a flat head screw driver but you will need to get a new lock and key for it

Adam

i can 2nd the unbolting idea.. i have a tank for my project that has no key.. unbolted everything & still cant get the sod off.. I am going to have to drill out the lock.. when i get time!

lesson learnt.. get spare keys cut as soon as you get the originals in your hand.

Be carefull, you can bend the inside of the tank where the two prongs of the fuel cap open up to lock the cap in place.

I would be tempted to drill out the lock mechanism with a big drill bit.

When you get the barrel out you should be able to see the mechanism at the bottom which you can move into the open postion with a screwdriver.

The same happened to mine before I bought it , the guy had levered the cap open and damaged the inside of the tank. I bought a new key lock set and tried to make a good one out of the old barrel and the new cap so all the keys fitted but it was too damaged. Still had a play with it on my workbench.


As a stop gap you could actually force fuel back up the pipe into the tank using the fuel pump, get a petrol can of fuel and use the pump to push it back up. Two cans should be a full tank.

thanks for the advice everyone.

thats another great idea gullarm!
Ill take a can to the petty station if i have no luck/time left getting it open before tommorow morning.

It's a bit of hassle as you will have to remove the tank to get to the fuel pump but its do able.

You will have to wire up the fuel pump to run as well.

Or a local scrap yard may have one you could beg/borrow/steal.

I would only drill the lock as a last resort, the key may turn up!

Sorry for the late reply on this..

To update things for anybody with the same problem.

I ran the fuel pump in reverse to pump 5L of petrol into the tank from a can, which worked great.
...
When this ran out i'd given up on finding the keys and started to break into the lock.
10 minutes later. i find the keys!!!
Unfortunately id already damaged the lock, so had to very gently and slowly drill the lock out until the whole mechanism popped out with some pliers.

Now its just simply a case of pushing each latch inside the tank cap to one side to open the tank.


Thanks for all the advice

You could fit a race filler then you don't have to worry about losing keys

I would be tempted to replace the whole lot, keep an eye out on ebay.

One key to do all 3. I had different keys and it was doing my head in.

Set up some searches on ebay and get them to email you what comes in.

gullarm wrote:I would be tempted to replace the whole lot, keep an eye out on ebay.

One key to do all 3. I had different keys and it was doing my head in.

Set up some searches on ebay and get them to email you what comes in.

I never buy second hand lock sets - you never know who has a key for them