Safari tank install TE51 w. pics

OK just got ahold of the large capacity Safari tank for my TE510, from www.justgastanks.com Its been a long wait! Stock tank is silly with only about 7 useable litres, this one is supposed to have 17 !!

So here is a step by step install procedure. Long post warning.

Tank came well packaged, here is what it includes:



Instructions (which are just OK), tank, longer fuel line, cross-brace and frame attachment, and foam for frame rail. Some assorted stickers.

Tools needed: 8 mm and 10 mm socket, 4 and 6 mm allen, loctite and anti-seize, a cut-off wheel if you have rad braces.

Take off the seat and stock tank, including the plastic rad shrouds. Be careful around the red plastic elbow on the fuel pump, it looks quite fragile.



A handful of fasteners need to be transferred from the old tank to the new, for the seat post, rubber frame bumpers, and the fasteners for the fuel pump. Its different metal in the inserts, so anti-seize prob a good idea:



Remove the fuel pump from the stock tank. 6 x 8mm fasteners. Stock tank made by Acerbis, now why couldn’t they offer a higher capacity tank that could be selected with the new bike? They seem to be able to do it with KTM……



Here is the pump in all its glory. Check to make sure the elec connections are solid, and that he pump body hasn’t slid upwards. Some people have trouble with the pump body sliding out of the clips and not picking up the last few cm of fuel. Fix involves putting another zip tie around the pump bottom to top to make sure it can’t migrate upwards. Safety wire would work well too, I used a zip, shown to the right of the pump getting tightened.



Here is the zip tie tightened up around the top of the pump (black one is mine, clear one is the one that can come loose) just don’t crush any wires or the screen.



Now I put the pump in the new tank, instructions say to slot it with the red elbow closest to the back of the bike. It wouldn’t fit that way, so I flipped it around, the red elbow spins anyways.



Bolt up the fuel pump in the Safari, making sure not to torque too tight. I didn’t use a torque wrench, just went by feel.

Now the tricky part. The front bottom of the wings of the tank are connected by an aluminum cross-brace that bolts to the frame in the middle, right underneath the bottom of the rads. I have 7602 rad braces on the bike, and want to keep them, but they interfere with the cross-brace at the bottom:



Therefore, the lower inside portion of the rad brace needs to be trimmed off, which eliminates the lowest cross-piece in the 7602 braces.

I used a zip saw with metal wheel to trim off the tabs, worked fine and I didn’t have to remove the braces. You can see here the tab on the right is already cut, just finishing the one on the left. Afterwards I filed off the sharp point at the bottom.



That’s fitment issue #1 taken care of. With enough metal trimmed off, loosely mount the cross-brace (make sure to feed the L-shaped piece from the top of the valve cover to join the brace itself) and fit the tank onto the bike. Attach the cross-brace at the bottom, slide up the frame so it sits correctly, then mark that location on the frame.

Remove the tank and tighten up the cross brace fasteners (a 6mm allen and 4 x 4mm allens) at the location marked. Tight clearance for this job, but regular allen keys as opposed to a ratchet do well. This is what it looks like in correct location and fasteners loctited and torqued down:





With the cross-brace tightened down, fit the tank on the bike and attach the fuel and electrical line to the fuel pump, now sitting down on the right side of the bike at the lowest point. Make sure to remove your old fuel line and use the longer one supplied. Attach the side panels and the front mounting bolt, then the cross-braces to the bottom of the tank.

Slide on the seat – was a tight fit on mine but slid on with a bit of coaxing.

This is when I discovered fitment issue #2 – my stock signals squished into the wings of the tank:



OK that meant I need to relocate the front signals. No problem, I have a couple signal tabs that I got with my rack, never used them but now they will be handy. Any old piece of thick aluminum could work, just a couple holes drilled to fit on the upper triple pinch bolt.

Here is where I moved my signals to:





Other spots might work too, I didn’t want to play with extending the wiring so needed something real close to the original location.

Here is the bike all finished with the bits tightened up. 17 litres of fuel, should be over 200 –250 km range (will need testing!). Looks good, very solid quality feel to the plastic, and the good news is the stock husky cap fits the tank.








Not totally sold on the look, its not slim and sexy anymore but I am willing to trade that off for respectable range……

It does look tougher now, not some anemic little bitch………

More like a real adv ride

Hey sleazy I've just put one on my 450, like you say it not exactly slim but when you can do 240 ks to a tank it a good trade off. One thing I found is that I could hear engine more, I thought that their was something wrong with bike.


Husky Dude
To me I couldn't feel much different's as the fuel seems to sit lower than the standard tank, then again, I was use to a 12 litre IMS tank, the safari feels a little fatter


Kel

Ozzie, do you have rad guards on your TE 450 and if so did you have to modify them to get the Safari tank on?

I'm hoping I don't have to cut my Force Accessories rad guards to get the cross-brace to work.

Hey ozzie - 240 ks is awesome, I hope I get that too. I have put off calculating fuel economy on the bike til I had this tank, but will find out soon.

wow !!! $530????? that's pretty pricey. looks good though

Great write up and neat step by step instructions, even I could follow that. Thanks for the effort.

More than pretty pricey, its ridiculous!

I don't want to do IMS again, I went through four of those on my old bike. Cracked, cracked again, cracked again, and cracked yet again.

Hey Sleazy I forgot to tell you I run S/motard gearing because its flat around Mount Isa

F.R.Feak I dont have rad guards

Kel

I would think that the radiator guards would not be necessary with that tank. It looks like the tank does a good job of protecting the radiators. I cant tell with all the shadows and the black tank.

Hey Randog -

Yes I believe the tank would do a pretty good job, the wings cover the rads on both sides, and the cross-brace gives some protection.

I just wanted to keep the braces in there because it was a bit of work to get them mounted!

BP

Curious if it cuts down on air flow through the radiators significantly enough to cause problems on real single track. Seems it would be somewhat of a factor. Did you have to adjust your steering stops? I had mine adjusted for max turn with the stock tank- then after installing the IMS 3gal I lost a little turning radius.

Very good write up too- I hope you enjoy your new long range tank!

I'll post up when I get a chance to ride some ST, work and fatherhood has been busy lately, and now is the time when it rains here every day all day until April!

I hope it doesn't cause any airflow problems, that would be bad. My feeling looking at the design is it shouldn't, there is significant space behind the rads to let air through, and the usual hole through the tank behind the upper rad for that purpose.

I didn't have to adjust the steering stops, but they aren't backed all the way off for maximum radius anyways.

I'm curious to hear if there is a problem with the bottom of the left side of the tank sitting so close to the pipe. I know how much heat comes off those pipes because it gets very hot on my leg - seems like it might get hot enough to warp the plastic....

I'm sure the extra fuel capacity will be great but I just couldn't bring myself to turn my sexy little 310 into an army tank.... Opted for the IMS 3 gal and glued the original shrouds on the sides - YEP - she's still sexy