Fuel capacity and ran out of gas? question.

[WilliamGLX81]

Heya folks.

Here's the deal. Today, I was riding to help my friend who broke down on the road (bad alternator on her car). I hit E, put it on reserve, then slowly lost power less than 5 miles later. I filled up almost to the tippy top (1/2" below filler port) and it took 2.4 gallons. I could see and hear a tiny bit sloshing around the bottom of the tank, but I thought the capacity was 2.8 gallons (2.0 main + 0.8 reserve).

The spec in the manual says 12L or 3.17 gallons including reserve. I've never filled up even 2.4 gallons before.

The weird thing is I didn't totally run out of gas... but the #4 carb seemed to be totally out of fuel (much cooler exhaust pipe) while the others weren't. I limped it around to town on the shoulder on 3 cylinders and when I refilled it, it ran great.

About a month ago, I replaced the petcock with an aftermarket one from Z1Enterprises.

So... What happened? Maybe the #4 float is too low? Maybe it just got starved because it was on the end? Maybe the aftermarket petcock doesn't drain as far down as the stock one did?

Cheers, and happy riding.

[tom203]

When you ran out in "on" spot, maybe 4 got starved with air bubble. Switching to "res" didn't offer enough pressure right away to refill it. Both "pr" and "res" draw from same spot . The basic tank is 3.2 gallon full capacity- " res" amount depends on how petcock is made. My bike with original petcock had similar symptoms running downhill when tank was 1/3 full- I switched to petcock that had lower "on" capability , but this means very little reserve- but I don't rely on "res" . I find gas station at 1/4. This puny tank is only safe for about 125 miles in "on".

[WilliamGLX81]

I just re-checked the distance - it was actually 22-ish miles. I forgot that I hit the reserve right when I got on the freeway. I thought I switched it early, but apparently not.