Help! - Water in the downtube!

settemarche

New member
gotta major hosing on e-bay. bike arrived and still had water sloshing in the down tube. just totally devastated. where there is water in a steel frame - there is rust! does anyone have a solution? this weekend i was going to blow it out with an air hose. other than that?

thanks in advance,

Sette
 

Yo Eddy!

Member
Hi Sette,

I do think not very much to fear

If water can go in, it can also go out. You could use a hair dryer

After that use the best rustprevention stuff out there and if it isn't rusted through at this point not much can go wrong in future is my prediction
 

settemarche

New member
Yo Eddy! said:
Hi Sette,

I do think not very much to fear

If water can go in, it can also go out. You could use a hair dryer

After that use the best rustprevention stuff out there and if it isn't rusted through at this point not much can go wrong in future is my prediction



Melvin,

thanks for your words of wisdom. but the amount of rust that is coming out of the water bottle cage holes is not making me happy. i think i am going to blow the whole bike apart and do a through clean out.

Sette
 

Yo Eddy!

Member
You only get somewhat brown water or small particles?

Still think that if it isn't rusted through it can be saved
 

settemarche

New member
Yo Eddy! said:
You only get somewhat brown water or small particles?

Still think that if it isn't rusted through it can be saved

just brown water. no particulate matter. i used to moonlight at a welding and fabrication shop, so i am going to take it in next week and check the wall thickness and talk about options. i am sure that it is not rusted through. however, the situation is not optimal.

Sette,
 

Gift

New member
Well, giving life to this old thread...

I recently bought a 1990 Yo Eddy. I hear a sound coming from the down tube when I shake the frame. I hope it's solder particles, a few bits of welding slag, but I wonder if it's water inside the down tube... I know the tubes are sealed and the bottle cage holes on the down tube are also sealed (I checked that)... The seat tube is dry and has no rust and it's filled with waxoyl.

So, is there any chance the water could go in and now couldn't go out? Can I do something to eliminate the doubt about the water?

Thanks!
 

WD Pro

New member
If it were me, I would remove a bottle boss bolt, take a small drill (2.00mm ish) and drill down the centre of one of the sealed bosses (making it open but without damaging the thread).

Keep the frame warm for a while to make sure any moisture is gone (if there was any in the first place) and then squirt a frame saver / waxoyl type product in - it will protect it for future and bond / silence the loose stuff.

Fill the boss thread with grease, keep a bolt in it and forget about it :)

WD :)
 

Gift

New member
Yes, I believe you gave me the best (only?) solution. I'll try that soon.

But, again, is there any chance the water could go in and now couldn't go out? Did this happen to someone?
 

I-ROBOT

Active member
The downtubes are all sealed by welding at both ends and if the seat tube is dry as you say then there is very little chance (pun) that the part of the downtube that is inside the bottom of the seattube could have corroded and perforated to allow water to enter. If the water bottle bosses are sealed, then it is possible that a minute amount of brazing flux or melted silver could have gotten underneath the boss and dripped into the tube especially if the hole was a little too big to begin with or if the brazer messed it up the first time, pulled it out and rebrazed it.. The other possibility is that the downtube was not welded correctly to the bottom bracket when the frame was in the tacking jig. Since part of the downtube is covered by the seattube (where it is notched), that part has to be welded before the seattube is tacked into place. Since I did not tack weld all of the frames, I wouldn't know if that happened. Extremely unlikely though, even with the smoky shop thing going on:p, the tackers and frame fitters were very conscious of this.

The most likely scenario is that some debris got in through the bottle boss hole sometime between when the frame was welded and when the bottle bosses were brazed in and nobody noticed it. Often, the frames would sit on a rack for a week or more between welding and brazing depending on production needs at the time. I know the guys would usually blow them out but probably not 100% of the time.

I would say the likelihood of the substance being water or other liquid is very slim (another pun)

Good Luck
Scott
 
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