dummy

[SiP]

So I'm out riding in the sunshine and she starts to cough and splut, picked up briefly then died. If you look at the signature I have done quite a bit to her and was a little pissed to be sat at the side of the road.
Fuel guage showed a little less than 1/4 of a tank.

Then the idea hit me! Just try switching it to reserve - sure enough fired right up. What a dumb ass actually trusting a fuel guage.

[fredintoon]

Hi Si,
you are not alone. Same nonsense on my rig. Sputtered & died but it can't need switching to reserve because the red light didn't come on. Switch to reserve anyway and Vroom! Strangely enough, the red light don't come on if you forget to plug the sender in when you put the tank back on. One good thing about unbolting the rear tank bolt and lifting the tank up to plug in the sender, I found the leak in the fuel line that had been giving me 17mpg.

[HobbyMan]

Do a resistance check on your fuel sending unit.

[wa407mpp]

My fuel gauge quit a couple months after it came out of the dealership, I've never used one and never missed having one. If you know your bike, you don't need one.

[SiP]

Thanks to all - this is the first bike I've ever had with a fuel guage. I think I'll just mark where it actually runs out and (as you said) you get to know your bike - plus isn't that what reserve is for?

It was just really embarrasing when I realised what it was when I should have clicked straight away.

[fredintoon]

That's how it's supposed to work?

Hi Si,
with my Special I ride in theoretical ignorance of how much fuel there is in the tank until the red light comes on. That tells me in 10 miles I go onto reserve. Going onto reserve tells me that in 10 miles I'll be pushing a nearly half-ton of sidecar rig to the next gas station. OTOH a Standard rider has a fuel gauge and thus has continuous fuel level monitoring. Going onto reserve at ~1/4 full tells you that you should have been watching your fuel gauge more closely. Not that those instruments are linear, the family Buick, like every other car we have owned, goes way further from F to 1/2 than it does from 1/2 to E.

[olebiker]

You are not the first nor will you be the last. Don't ask me how I know this.

[Cobia]

Don't feel bad

Hey SIP,
On the way back from the ride I posted earlier I was getting off the FL turnpike and took a bump which at a glance seemed to bounce my fuel tank rather severely. As I reached over to grab the front of it and check to make sure it was stable my glove hit the shut off switch. All of a sudden as I was getting off the turnpike at 70mph the bike died!!!!!! I tried to jump it and no luck and then I looked down and saw the switch on off !!!!! Flicked it and popped the clutch and she came back to life.... !!! I didn't need any more unwanted events after the southbound one I experienced!!!
So, sometimes you just have to look for the obvious that is not so apparent at the moment.

[81xsproject]

I bet SiP was cussing my name! Yesterday, I took a ride and everything was going great. I got off the freeway and when I came to the bottom of the off ramp, I put the clutch in and it just died. I was like, what the hell...? The down fall to running on just the left petcock is that it starves for fuel about 30 seconds before the fuel light comes on. Flipped to RES and Megathrust fired right up.

SiP, I am going to be returning to a stock pilot for testing with the AEM. I have a real rich spot while cruising from 3K-5K. I am guessing it is why my mileage sucks. If it works out for the better, I will let you know as you are currently running the same setup.
Jess

[Flatlander]

With or without a working guage.

My guage works but while riding I never watch it. I've left the valves in the prime position and came very close to being stranded. I'm sure that alot of others have done the same thing, so here is what I do, leave one in prime or res and the other in the on position. That way when the tank gets too low for the on position, '81 starts to sputter and before I'm in water over my head I reach down and turn it to reserve or prime like the other one and '81 takes right off.
Hope this helps.

[fredintoon]

Hi Flatlander,
How come you run with one gas tap switched to ON and the other to RES or PRIME?
ON is fine, the diaphragm valve in the gas tap automatically stops the gas flow when the engine ain't running. Well, so does RES but leaving one gas tap on RES all the time cuts your reserve gas capacity to that small amount of gas that can't slosh over from the other side of the tank. As for habitually running with one gas tap on PRIME, that bypasses the automatic gas shut-off system so your gas is actually ON all the time so when the bike is parked the only thing stopping gas from overflowing is those four float valves. There's several strings on this list that go on and on about the float valves not always working as they should, letting one or more carbs overflow, resulting in gas filled airboxes &/or crankcases. Never mind the potential engine damage, that stuff costs me over $5 a gallon!

[Flatlander]

Hello fredintoon and good day,
I misspoke with leaving it in the "prime" position. I was trying to incorporate others that have other systems on their bike and you are right this won't work. Sorry for the confusion.
By leaving one in the res and one in the on position, when the one side runs out first (the on position), the other side (res) feeds the other two carbs, causing the motor to spit and sputter before the engine just quits. This way you are able, most of the time, to catch the motor while still running. I was hoping to help out the sudden motor stop and in some cases, sudden panic. I do mostly highway traveling and this is were I find it most helpfull. I also turn the one that I had in the on position that runs out to the prime, to feed the two carbs faster.
This is only what I do since I do not watch the fuel guage very good. And for others that may have a faulty or failed fuel guage, this may help. Not trying to make this confusing or add any confusion to your ride, just posting what I do. Maby this dosn't work at all and I'm experiencing.......well......I don't know.......never mind......don't do what I do!

[fredintoon]

Hidden reserve

Hi Flatlander,
I run with only one gas tap switched on (you can do that with a Special because their gas taps have an OFF setting) and when my XS11 needs to be switched to reserve it always starts to spit, splutter and generally act up for long enough that it don't actually stop as I switch to reserve. Try this:- Run the bike with both taps to ON until it needs to go to reserve.
Then switch one tap to RES and see how far you can go until the bike starts to die again and you must switch the other tap to RES. Those miles are really "reserve" miles that your "one tap always on RES" practice has hidden from you. One day you may need them.

[egsols]

I have always used the trip meter and know that if I try to reach 100 miles/160km without refueling I'll be pushing it. I, therefore, plan my gas stops accordingly. I have only run out once and that was because I got stuck on the highway in a traffice jam where I couldn't really shut the bike down to conserve fuel.