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Photos are in the process of being recovered for this thread. Sorry for the inconvenience.
At the request of others, I've re-edited the description of the xt350 oem tank installation on the tw200. The original links and those patched into MrGizmow's compendium do not appear to work at present and thus this re-hash.
The bare bones explanation of installing a stock Yamaha xt350 tank (metal oem with 3.17 gallons capacity) on a Yamaha TW200.
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1. The front mounts for the xt350 and tw200 are identical and the xt350 tank will use the same rubber donuts that are present in the stock tw200 installation.
2. The xt350 tank probably clears the front fork and handlbebars without being shimmed to the rear or handlebar risers but this depends on how bars are adjusted, condition of front tank mount donuts etc. Note: It will also depend on how the rear mount modification is handled. See below (Item 4).
For my installation I shimmed the tank backwards by placing a thin rubber strip in the front 1/2 of the C shaped mounts to move the tank backwards 2 or 3 mm.
3. I did raise my handlebars aboutr 3/4 inch by using the top half of an extra set up tw200 handlebar clamps (placed under the bars and held in place with longer bolts). I suspected that this was necessary but did not check this to be sure and hence may have added the height unnecessarily.
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4. The internally threaded stud that constitutes the rear tank mount on the original tank protrudes vertically and if not modified will hold the xt350 tank up because the rear mount opening for the xt350 tank is some 3/4 inch or more further back. Hence I moved this mount point backwards (distance was something between 3/4 of an inch and 1.25 inch and probably depends on how much you shim the front mounts (determine for your application and do not trust these guesses). The rear mount is moved back by:
a. cutting off the vertical stud of the original rear mount (on the frame of the tw200). This mount is threaded all the way through its length and hence when cut off above the frame where it is welded in place) it still have threads to allow attachment of a bracket that will allow the part that was chopped off to be positioned further back at an appropriate position for the xt350 rear tank mount.
b. I placed a flat washer over the vertical pen so that I could just hacksaw the pen off leaving a bit of a ridge that would help hold my bracket in place (also held down by a bolt and washer on top of the bracket and threaded into the remaining base of the posterior mount pen. See photos.
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c. I then fabricated an L shaped bracket the front part of which was bolted to the original base of the rear tank mount, and the rear part of which rested on the frame and a hole of an appropriate size to allow the stub that was removed from the rear mount to be reattached with a bolt from underneath. See photos.
This bracket could be flat stock but I used something more elaborate (a bracket from an old computer printer) which is certainly unnecessarily rigid. This bracket is held in place by a single bolt through the base of the original stud but is substantial enough and has given no hit of movement or loosening in multiple thousands of miles of off road riding to date.
5. I then positioned the tank (using original front mounts and rear mount modified to be slight further back than orig) using same rubber bushing and type of hold down bolt as original tw tank installation.
Edit: Here is a mockup of the original metal piece used to fabricate the posterior bracket (lower left of illustration). Stud removed from original posterior mount was reattached at point A (with bolt from bottom) and hole for attaching bracket to original stud position (with remaining threads and bolt from top) was at site B.
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6. I was able to use the xt350 petcock, but I believe it is identical to the tw200 petcock (same part number on bikebandit.com)
7. I did have room for the original plastic shroud to clear the petcock but it is closer to the plastic than the original tw200 position.
8. The tw200 plastics fit but do not have a grommet attachment for the front attachment point (no problem in 2000 + miles of using this configuration).
9. I did use an inline fuel filter because my xt350 tank had some rust, but there was room for it with removal of a a bit of fuel line and a slight tension toward bending it.
10. Even tho my xt350 tank had some rust (I cleaned it somewhat with many rinses of diesel fuel prior to installation), I've had no problems with carb fouling or clogged fuel filters. I did not use kream or other tank treatment techniques.
11. The xt350 tank accepts the same size fuel cap as the older 1987-2001 tw200 tanks. New TW tanks used a fuel cap with a smaller diameter. Hence I was able to find a keyless vintage yamaha cap that fit my xt350 tank and avoided a tight cap problem that was present with both tanks. (see photo). I had a source of these caps but the supply has been exhausted. Here are the two sizes of caps (large = pre 2003; small (post 2002) Ebay occasionally has these cap
![]()
s but since they are 2-4 decades old some will need to have a gas
![]()
ket fabricated for them to be servicable.
12. My xt350 tank is reported to be 3.17 gallons. The only time I really ran it to need reserve I was at 185 miles and it appeared that I had about 1 gallon left in the tank which would comfortably give me 250 miles range or more total miles if needed.
13. I was able to modify my seat just slightly to accommodate the steeper angle of the xt350 tank. I did this in order to use the original front seat bracket and still retain good seat/tank continuity. I merely had to make the seat able to flex a bit more than originally (by cutting the reinforcement ridges on the bottom of the seat pan where I wanted the flex to occur. To prevent cutting through to the seat cover, I pulled staples in the appropriate places and slid a plastic sheet between the cushion and the cover to prevent damage to the seat cover if I went that far. I did not. I merely cut the ridges, not the overall seat pan layer. See photo. Note: this seemed preferable to shortening the horn of the seat or bonding two seat together as have others. I was able to leave the original rubber seat bushing in place and my seat actually still inserts into the original front seat mount bracket and has given no problem. The only consequence of the more steep angle of the seat horn is a bit of wrinkling of the plastic cover (something covered by my tank bag, but easily correctable by refastening the cover for those who want to do so. Questions are welcomed for anyone finding ambiquities in this redigestion of the former description.
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BTW. My tank was probably a 1987 xt350. It was cheap and not in pristine condition. Some of the dents were covered by using the rubber tank pads seen on the following photo.
![]()
I have subsequently replaced this old tank with a much cleaner dent free version, but readily point out that the old one served me well for several years before being passed on to another forum rider. Tom
At the request of others, I've re-edited the description of the xt350 oem tank installation on the tw200. The original links and those patched into MrGizmow's compendium do not appear to work at present and thus this re-hash.
The bare bones explanation of installing a stock Yamaha xt350 tank (metal oem with 3.17 gallons capacity) on a Yamaha TW200.
1. The front mounts for the xt350 and tw200 are identical and the xt350 tank will use the same rubber donuts that are present in the stock tw200 installation.
2. The xt350 tank probably clears the front fork and handlbebars without being shimmed to the rear or handlebar risers but this depends on how bars are adjusted, condition of front tank mount donuts etc. Note: It will also depend on how the rear mount modification is handled. See below (Item 4).
For my installation I shimmed the tank backwards by placing a thin rubber strip in the front 1/2 of the C shaped mounts to move the tank backwards 2 or 3 mm.
3. I did raise my handlebars aboutr 3/4 inch by using the top half of an extra set up tw200 handlebar clamps (placed under the bars and held in place with longer bolts). I suspected that this was necessary but did not check this to be sure and hence may have added the height unnecessarily.
4. The internally threaded stud that constitutes the rear tank mount on the original tank protrudes vertically and if not modified will hold the xt350 tank up because the rear mount opening for the xt350 tank is some 3/4 inch or more further back. Hence I moved this mount point backwards (distance was something between 3/4 of an inch and 1.25 inch and probably depends on how much you shim the front mounts (determine for your application and do not trust these guesses). The rear mount is moved back by:
a. cutting off the vertical stud of the original rear mount (on the frame of the tw200). This mount is threaded all the way through its length and hence when cut off above the frame where it is welded in place) it still have threads to allow attachment of a bracket that will allow the part that was chopped off to be positioned further back at an appropriate position for the xt350 rear tank mount.
b. I placed a flat washer over the vertical pen so that I could just hacksaw the pen off leaving a bit of a ridge that would help hold my bracket in place (also held down by a bolt and washer on top of the bracket and threaded into the remaining base of the posterior mount pen. See photos.
c. I then fabricated an L shaped bracket the front part of which was bolted to the original base of the rear tank mount, and the rear part of which rested on the frame and a hole of an appropriate size to allow the stub that was removed from the rear mount to be reattached with a bolt from underneath. See photos.
This bracket could be flat stock but I used something more elaborate (a bracket from an old computer printer) which is certainly unnecessarily rigid. This bracket is held in place by a single bolt through the base of the original stud but is substantial enough and has given no hit of movement or loosening in multiple thousands of miles of off road riding to date.
5. I then positioned the tank (using original front mounts and rear mount modified to be slight further back than orig) using same rubber bushing and type of hold down bolt as original tw tank installation.
Edit: Here is a mockup of the original metal piece used to fabricate the posterior bracket (lower left of illustration). Stud removed from original posterior mount was reattached at point A (with bolt from bottom) and hole for attaching bracket to original stud position (with remaining threads and bolt from top) was at site B.
6. I was able to use the xt350 petcock, but I believe it is identical to the tw200 petcock (same part number on bikebandit.com)
7. I did have room for the original plastic shroud to clear the petcock but it is closer to the plastic than the original tw200 position.
8. The tw200 plastics fit but do not have a grommet attachment for the front attachment point (no problem in 2000 + miles of using this configuration).
9. I did use an inline fuel filter because my xt350 tank had some rust, but there was room for it with removal of a a bit of fuel line and a slight tension toward bending it.
10. Even tho my xt350 tank had some rust (I cleaned it somewhat with many rinses of diesel fuel prior to installation), I've had no problems with carb fouling or clogged fuel filters. I did not use kream or other tank treatment techniques.
11. The xt350 tank accepts the same size fuel cap as the older 1987-2001 tw200 tanks. New TW tanks used a fuel cap with a smaller diameter. Hence I was able to find a keyless vintage yamaha cap that fit my xt350 tank and avoided a tight cap problem that was present with both tanks. (see photo). I had a source of these caps but the supply has been exhausted. Here are the two sizes of caps (large = pre 2003; small (post 2002) Ebay occasionally has these cap
s but since they are 2-4 decades old some will need to have a gas
ket fabricated for them to be servicable.
12. My xt350 tank is reported to be 3.17 gallons. The only time I really ran it to need reserve I was at 185 miles and it appeared that I had about 1 gallon left in the tank which would comfortably give me 250 miles range or more total miles if needed.
13. I was able to modify my seat just slightly to accommodate the steeper angle of the xt350 tank. I did this in order to use the original front seat bracket and still retain good seat/tank continuity. I merely had to make the seat able to flex a bit more than originally (by cutting the reinforcement ridges on the bottom of the seat pan where I wanted the flex to occur. To prevent cutting through to the seat cover, I pulled staples in the appropriate places and slid a plastic sheet between the cushion and the cover to prevent damage to the seat cover if I went that far. I did not. I merely cut the ridges, not the overall seat pan layer. See photo. Note: this seemed preferable to shortening the horn of the seat or bonding two seat together as have others. I was able to leave the original rubber seat bushing in place and my seat actually still inserts into the original front seat mount bracket and has given no problem. The only consequence of the more steep angle of the seat horn is a bit of wrinkling of the plastic cover (something covered by my tank bag, but easily correctable by refastening the cover for those who want to do so. Questions are welcomed for anyone finding ambiquities in this redigestion of the former description.
BTW. My tank was probably a 1987 xt350. It was cheap and not in pristine condition. Some of the dents were covered by using the rubber tank pads seen on the following photo.
I have subsequently replaced this old tank with a much cleaner dent free version, but readily point out that the old one served me well for several years before being passed on to another forum rider. Tom
