Fire Fire

[Ranger]

Not even an hour ago I finally put everything together on my bike, set up and aux fuel tank and it fired up perfectly. While I was adjusting my air mixture screws something went terribly wrong.. *DUN DUN DUNNNN*

MY BIKE CAUGHT FIRE!!!!!!

Somehow fuel was slightly leaking down out of my tank and followed the little spring type thing that surrounds my vapor hose and sparked with my battery. I remember hearing it then next thing I knew there was so much heat. I knocked over my freshly painted and bondoed tank off the table and grabbed the fire exting and by this time I couldnt see the bike except the headlight. Luckily it took not even a second for the fire to go out. I decided to hose it down and clean then inspect. Everything is fine, a little burnt electrical tape but surprisingly it started when I fixed the fuel leak. Now it doesnt start. Ugh, I'm going to the shop.

 

[JEEPRUSTY]

your a lucky man
in spite of the mishap

now not to be cruel but you got a pic post fire?

 

[Ranger]

Haha actually I got ****ed off and garaged it and drove down to my friends for a few days now. Ill post pictures tho. I'm not sure what to do, I don't have the money for a shop and don't have the experience to fix it.

 

[7981GS]

Sorry to hear of the mishap.
Did the fire burn some of the insulation from the hot lead of the battery and ground it out?

Daniel

 

[Ranger]

I'm not sure... I didn't see any insulation burnt really and the fire was around the engine, no where near the battery. All fuses were good too. Would anyone like to offer a hand possibly that has more experience so I can get it running and examine it so I can be worry free.. heh...

 

[cowboyup3371]

Sorry to hear about that. Hopefully everything will get running again soon.

 

[Ranger]

Looks like I'm stuck anyways. No shop I call wants to work on an older bike and the only place that will is 60 miles away and charges $90 an hour for labor.

I've decided I'm going to garage it until I feel like messing with it again, probably sometime in the spring.

 

[Skateguy50]

lesson is always have a fire extinguisher handy, if that got the tank to go it would have been much more than a damaged bike.

I haven not always been so good with this myself, once had to bury a snowblower to put a fire out from a leaking gas line. it was the quickest way to put the fire out a hundred feet or so down the driveway.

 

[Ranger]

I always have one handy, I just had it in the garage where I was working, I rolled it out into my drive way.

 

[Cronos]

Ranger, due to my own issue right now I just found a place near me on Convoy in SD called C+D Cycles that will work on older bikes. Just a heads up

 

[Buffalo Bill]

Maybe you chose the wrong hobby?

Maybe you chose the wrong hobby?

Have you considered bicycles, surfing or sailing?

 

[El Giablo]

Bring her, and some beer. I'll get her going. 15 N / 10 W. El G.

 

[1_v8_merc]

Maybe u were runnin too much NOS and u blew the welds on the intake manifold!
Haha jk.

That sucks though man, atleast u had a fire extinguisher, and weren't forced to watch her burn to a crisp! It could have been a lot worse!

Which reminds me.... I've been meaning to get one for My bike as well!

 

[Flyboy]

Glad you still have the bike, it could have turned ugly, I was not so lucky when I had an XJ650 burn out on me, due to the combination of a leaky petcock and exhaust cross over pipe, while I was riding in fact.
Stopped at a traffic light on my way home one night, and my buddy who was riding with me, pulls up next to me pointing franticaly at the carb area, I look down and see flames, I abandon ship and run over to the filling station on the corner to grab an extinguisher, the thing is empty, tried 4, all empty.
Well once the tank caught, that was it, there was nothing left of the bike, and I mean Nothing with a capital N.
We stood on the side walk just watching it burn in the middle of the road.

 

[Ranger]

Bring her, and some beer. I'll get her going. 15 N / 10 W. El G.

This would have been handy a while back...

I have 10 cases of different beer and 8 bottles of liquor for New Years at Glamis.... erg.

Woulda saved me $350 at the shop.

 

[posplayr]

This would have been handy a while back...

I have 10 cases of different beer and 8 bottles of liquor for New Years at Glamis.... erg.

Woulda saved me $350 at the shop.

so do you have it running again?

 

[Ranger]

so do you have it running again?

I do, still refuses to start without starter fluid with or without the choke on when the engine is cold. The idle is crazy, won't rev up when I engage the choke and when I set the idle speed it is fine til I ride it then its right around 2000rpm at a stop light.

Shop wants another $150 to find the problem and I don't have that to throw at them since they just did all the work so I'm riding it as is which is rough.

 

[DanTheMan]

You're leaking air in around the intake boots and possibly the air cleaner housing itself and it's boots. Air leaks will cause those problems, fix those and it'll be close to running right again. If you let it keep running like that you'll notice your pipes turning blue and you might end up with the same probs as Shirazdrum (Chris), holey pistons!

 

[Ranger]

You're leaking air in around the intake boots and possibly the air cleaner housing itself and it's boots. Air leaks will cause those problems, fix those and it'll be close to running right again. If you let it keep running like that you'll notice your pipes turning blue and you might end up with the same probs as Shirazdrum (Chris), holey pistons!

This is what I checked this morning before my ride, I sprayed WD40 around my intake boots which are all new with new rings and have new clips and nothing, I sprayed it into each air intake and the rpms dropped so I know its not too lean. Vacuum hose has no cracks or bends.

I'm losing all patience, none of my neighbors have experience working on street bikes or older bikes at that nor do they have the proper tools. I'm decent working on my own stuff since I've been doing it for years but its easier since most of the stuff I bought was no older than 3 or 4 years old and worked great anyways so finding problems was easy. Even following all the instructions here hasn't got it 100% but then again it takes experience & finesse I suppose.

 

[Truth]

You paid a shop to fix it and it still doesn't run right? I don't know about bike shops, but at mine I can't give a customer their car back until it's right.