hello everyone.  I'm new on the forum (but not new to motorcycles) and picked up a 1991 GS500 that had been slightly wrecked and then just parked for 5 years.  I've been getting it back on the road and everything is done except the gas tank. 

The old tank liner is peeling and I can't get it all out.  I've used the vinegar and screw/nail trick and removed most of the old liner, but there is some that just won't come out.  And this tank is impossible to get emptied out and to reach the pieces of the old liner laying in the bottom to pull them out... what a pain.

Any suggestions about how to get the old tank liner completely out?

I would like to find a replacement tank... but no luck yet.  Am I correct in assuming that all tanks from 1989-2003 fit my bike?  Or are there only certain years that are interchangeable?

thanks in advance.

here's how she sits as of today...

2001 and newer got a new, larger tank, with a different shaped seat as well. I'd stick with a 2000 and older.

http://gstwins.com/gsboard/index.php?topic=56658.0

Are you planning to recoat the tank? If not, if the chunks are that hard to get out, they probably won't come out while riding, so just put a fuel filter on and ride?

It just blew my mind how nasty, brownish/black that the vinegar was I dumped out of there.  It was seriously disgusting.  It looked like muddy, stagnate pond water.

Maybe I will just do as you suggested and re-install it without re-lining it and just ride it until I find a decent replacement tank.  I have fuel filters on both lines... so I should be good there.