Leaking Gas Tank

Unclebuck257 · Oct 17, 2008

I don't think that Montana will do a recall on those fuel tanks, but THEY SHOULD!! I still believe that my Montana 5740C is a great tractor and that it was a great deal when I bought it, compared to other name brands at the time.

JimmyBean · Oct 20, 2008

Hi Unclebuck257,
Well my dealer has finally gotten back to me on the leaking tank. Their rep. says that it is not covered and a new tank is $339.00. What a crock of ....!!!!! Anyhow I took the pan guard off again and it was binding at the same hole that I had enlarged by elongating. I ran the tractor several hours hauling shale to get the fuel down below the leaking spot. It was the nut at the front left corner of the tank. It is a couple of inches up the side. So I parked the tractor on a slope to run the remaining fuel away from the repair site. I buffed the spot with emery and cleaned with contact cleaner to remove all fuel residue. I used a two part epoxy that states it will stick to almost anything. My wife uses it for sculpting. It is called Aves Apoxie Sculpt. I removed the nut from the pocket of the tank before filling the hole and crack with the epoxy. I let it cure over night and great, no leak now for over a week. I sanded and smoothed the spot, then sprayed it with a little black paint to blend it in. I will design and make new brackets to hold the pan. I don't think it is a good idea to bolt to the tank anyway! Steel and plastic do not expand at the same rate. I think the two were constantly working against each other and the plastic being the weaker, gave up the ghost. Not related to the tank, but the other issue I have is the PTO engaging with such great force that it beats up my equipment. I have learned from someone on here to hold the loader valve dumped at one extreme to put a load on the hydraulic pump. By doing that, it helps to lessen the blow at the PTO. I do know that Montana has some sort of fix or adjustment for this. I contacted my dealer last May before my warranty expired about this. They failed to get back to me. I re-questioned the problem this time and they told me their rep. didn't think the fix was worth the expense. Shouldn't that have been my decision ? How cool that now my tractor is off the warranty! I think it is time to call Montana direct and see how they respond to these issues. Anyone else having this run around by their dealer?
Jim T.

Unclebuck257 · Oct 21, 2008

JimmyBean,

I don't have those types of issues with my dealer because the dealer I bought mine from is no longer a Montana dealer. They got crossways over something. Now the closest dealer to me now is in east Texas, about 2 1/2 hours away. I've talked to him on the phone and he's been very nice. but with high fuel costs, that's pretty far for me to go.

The only thing I learned regarding my PTO was to engage the implement with the PTO, at a low PTO speed, BEFORE reving up the motor speed to "use speed". I then increase PTO speed with the implement already hooked to it, and thus increasing it gradually as the motor increases.