| Author | Message | ||
     Steveford |
I'd heard about it but never experienced it before: my S1 drained the gas tank into the crankcase over the Winter. Man, what a mess so tomorrow I get to run some cheap oil through it and then dump that out and stick in some Mobil 1. Moral of the story: don't trust the carb to keep the gas where it belongs. | ||
| Jrman |
Good to know. I heard about this from my HD mechanic back in 2002 when i bought my first S1. Good habit to get into clearly. He said he had seen 2 such cases during his time working in Buells though im sure its not specific to our bikes. | ||
| 46champ |
I worked at a Harley dealer in the 80's it was company policy that all bikes had their petcocks off when not being run. The policy came from a mess from before my time. | ||
| Buellistic |
THERE ARE TWO TIME WHEN YOU TURN THE "GAS OFF", WHEN YOU STOP AND WHEN YOU TRAILER THE BIKE !!! | ||
| S1owner |
I learned this on my snow mobile! Came in the garage and 6 gallons on the floor never left one open since | ||
| Ratbuell |
Hmm...good call. I saw a puddle stain under my M2 last week - carb overflowed. Didn't think about crankcase issues - I'll add that to my "carb rebuild" checklist on that bike. | ||
| Steveford |
It filled up the primary, too! What fun. | ||
| Steveford |
P.S. Today is going to be one of those "Man and Machine in Perfect Harmony" days. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I was planning on today being one of those...new VR for the Uly, new skidplate for my YJ to put the fuel tank back where it belongs (ATTACHED to the Jeep), replace struts on a broke co-workers car as a favor...then my tenant's water pressure disappeared so I get to pull a well pump and see what sort of surprises await me there. wheeeeeeee...... | ||
| S1owner |
Me too Brake line on the S1 Relocate battery on the 86 gs 650 cafe Lift kit and oil coolant lines on the kids truck! | ||
| Steveford |
Happy day - two oil and primary changes (plus oil filter, of course), new battery, brakes bled and the S1 lives again! Now if only I could do something about that butt ugly bubbling tank I'd be all set. Note to self: turn off petcock. | ||
| Archstanton |
Run all the gas out of the fuel line and carb when you reach the point where you plan on leaving your bike for more than a few days. Turn the petcock off and let the lines run dry by revving the motor and twisting the throttle to empty the accelerator pump and fuel lines. Your motor will backfire and pop a lot when you do this. I learned to do this while flying airplanes many years ago. This procedure will get all the fuel out of the carb and fuel lines. Plus it cleans the the spark plugs. Fuel will foul and clog a carb and filters. Todays modern day fuel it is even worse. I am sure some people will argue that leaning out a motor like this will get it hot and damage the valves and do other terrible thing to the motor. However I have been doing this to my airplane and my Buell S1 since day one and all I can say is they both run fine and show no sign of failure after many hours of use. The one thing that aircraft and Harley motors have in common is that they are air cooled long stroke motors. So , in my thinking, why not treat them in similar fashion. As for gas tank paint bubbling. The gas tank in the 96 to 98 Buells seem to bubble due to fuel vapors breathing through the tank walls. After going through three gas tanks that bubbled up on me I concluded that the only thing to do was to seal the tank from the inside. Nothing applied to the outside of the tank prevented the bubbling. On tank number four I purchased a two part base gas tank sealer and used it inside the tank. It has been over 14 years and there has been no sign of bubbling in the paint since then. Oh well, these are only my experiences. Take them for what they are worth. Flying airplanes for over thirty years and my S1 for over sixteen years. | ||
| Harleyelf |
What brand sealant? I used Kreem in my S3 when I put the petcock in and the lining came out in one piece a week later. | ||
| Kilroy |
You, Mr. Deguire, have discovered the holy grail if indeed you have a simple, inexpensive fix to the tank bubbling issue that actually works. Tank sealers have been discussed on this forum for years and they usually end up like Harleyelf's. Please let us know which sealer you used that has held fast for 14 years - | ||
| Fahren |
^^ Post count: 1 Francis, introduce yourself. C'mon in and pull up a chair. And tell us about that tank sealer some more. | ||
| Ratbuell |
I disagree with draining the bowl and line for storage. Fuel turns to goo when it reacts with air. Leaving the line and bowl (and jets) filled with liquid fuel will let it sit for longer periods of time before deteriorating. I do agree with shutting the petcock though. My normal (missed the shut-the-valve step on the M2 as noted above) storage procedure is to put sea foam in the tank per the volume guidelines. Ride to the gas station, which fills the lines, bowl, and jets (or injectors if its EFI) with treated fuel. Then I fill the tank to the brim and ride it home. Next to no airspace in the tank, none in the system. Then I shut the valve so theres no fluid weight on the float needle, and let it sit. I do this for carb bikes, efi bikes, cars, trucks, mowers and snowblowers when they're being stored. | ||
| Lakes |
here in Australia we ride all year, so no storage over winter as mild weather. but back in the 80's i was riding a kick start only Shovelhead i forgot to turn petcock off & overnight the crank case filled up with gas. i was trying to kick start was real hard to kick over, i took the air cleaner off, kicked it over with throttle open a few times to pump air in, then give it a good kick it fired up but gas was shirting out the breather hose. so shut off and took the sump plug out the delcron cases. drained it out changed oil. i have never left a petcock turned on since, every shut off even just to park i turn petcock off from habit |
