Curious as to what the manual says

[chuck hahn]

Was on Bikecliffs reading a bit about fluid and gas capacity for my newly aquirred 83 GS 650G. So heres what the fuel capacity is listed as..

Fuel tank including reserve 16.0L or 4.2 US Gallons.
THEN right under that it simply says.... RESERVE 4.5L or 4.8 US Gallons

So does the tank hold 4.2 or 4.8 total gallons from fully drained????

Page 1-12 here. http://zeus.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/GS650GManual.pdf

 

[Cipher]

that would almost certainly have to be 4.8.

 

[Gorminrider]

I have an "owners manual" for the 1982 650G from Suzuki and here's what it says...paraphrased but accurate from text

Fuel tank including reserve 16 liters (=4.2 US gallons =3.5 Imperial gallons)

........Reserve only 4.5 liters (=4.8 US quarts = 4 Imperial quarts) so, reserve is quite large ...more than a quarter of the tank( 0.28)

 

[BigD_83]

Gorminrider for the win...that 4.8 gallon figure was from some typist having a bad day

Despite the "large" reserve, I find I have to turn to it much sooner than I would expect, at just under half a tank indicated. There may be some variance in the height of the fuel pickups that accounts for this

 

[chuck hahn]

Long as I know the 4.8 GALLONS is what the tank holds will be what I need to do a calibration of the sending unit. What I do nis take the known stated capacity and get half that much in a can at the pump and dump it in. Then see where the needle settles in relationship to the half tank mark. If it reads a bit lower than the mark you bend the arm of the float down a little. If it reads higher than the half mark you bend the arm up a little.

May have to drain the tank to tweek it a few times but I get the needle settling as close to on the mark as I can. I simply like having some confidence in the needle when Im on a trip.

 

[Nessism]

But the tank doesn't hold 4.8 gallons, it holds 4.2.

 

[Steve]

For me, it doesn't matter how many gallons the tank holds, I prefer to do my gauge calibration at the REServe mark. :-k

Some gauges just have a white band for the fuel gauge, others have a red area just below that. Either way, I will put a hose on the petcock that drains into a can, then apply vacuum to open the petcock, which will be in the normal RUN position. When fuel stops flowing, I look at the gauge. If it is right at the bottom of the white band, I call it good and put the gas back in the tank. If it needs to be adjusted a bit, I turn the petcock to PRIme and finish draining it, then remove the float assembly for some tweaking. It may take a couple of tries, but eventually you will be able to see just how close you are to needing to switch to reserve.

I have found that some bikes will stay on the F mark for 40 or 50 miles before they start moving, then be at the half mark at about 100-120 and the bottom of the white band at about 160-180. I
t doesn't matter to me how long it stays at the top, only when it gets near the bottom.

.

 

[BigD_83]

Long as I know the 4.8 GALLONS is what the tank holds will be what I need to do a calibration of the sending unit. What I do nis take the known stated capacity and get half that much in a can at the pump and dump it in. Then see where the needle settles in relationship to the half tank mark. If it reads a bit lower than the mark you bend the arm of the float down a little. If it reads higher than the half mark you bend the arm up a little.

May have to drain the tank to tweek it a few times but I get the needle settling as close to on the mark as I can. I simply like having some confidence in the needle when Im on a trip.

Like Nessism says, it is 4.2 gallons, total.

I get what you are saying about the fuel level indicator. What I was trying to say is that I have just under a half a tank left when I have to turn to reserve, based on the amount I can travel after I do so, and/or the amount of fuel I have to put in, not that the gauge is showing an incorrect volume. The "reserve" volume seems to be a guideline, and might vary bike to bike depending on the individual fuel pickup.

 

[Nessism]

I thought this bike was supposed to be STOCK? You were going to set the pilot screws at the stock lean settings and put the caps back on? No bending of float arms allowed.

 

[chuck hahn]

ED....I had to disassembe the sender to remove the float arm to clean it. We arent talking about carb floats here... That U shaped spring type thing is the conductor that links the slider on the waffle board to ground. There was so much crud that the gauge needle would move and them stop and then stutter some more. I narrowed it down to that spring deal being a bad connection. Once i took the arm off...well that spoiled where the set screw was at from the factory. Thus I gotta recalibrate it. After cleaning the spring deal and the rest of the surfaces with some 1500 grit it worked perfectly again.