it's a 91gs, but i was just curious about what position the gas switch needs to be in for normal fuel, and the reserve, it's too hard to tell just looking at it, and i don't have an owners manual, i just wanna know which way is which to make sure it's on fuel, and which way i'd have to turn it for the reserve, cause i don't want it to be on the reserve already, for the first time it runs out, it's be real appriciated if someone could tell me what theirs is, as far as like a time clock, say 12:00 is off, 900 is fuel, and 600 is reserve, something simple like that, but thanks a ton if someone knows,

looking at my '02 (should be the same on yours) straight on, (meaning not sitting on the bike)

12:00=reserve
3:00=prime
6:00=on

hey, thanks a ton, so 600 down is just on, and then straight up would be the reserve, by prime do you mean it would be off? i wasn't too sure what you meant by that

Yeah, what the heck IS "Prime", anyhow?  Is that Japanese for "Off"?  Never did understand that.

Prime, (ever prime a lawn mower?)  it just lets the gas flow all the time.  Say your carbs are empty from a rebuild so you dont have gas to start the engine to create a vaccume to turn on the fuel.  This just bypasses the vaccume valve. (more complicated than you wanted, sorry.)  

Reserve and On require the engine to be running for fuel to flow.

Prime is basically an open tap and is used to refill the float bowls when they have been allowed to dry (running out of fuel, sitting for a long time).

There is no off, it's automatic if it's in Res or On and the engine is off.

Res and Prime draw from the lower tube and will use all the fuel in the tank.

so basically unless anything happens i don't wanna use the prime, and i just wanna keep it pointed straight up

uhhh i have a 96 and im pretty sure the gs changed in 00. see mine is:

6:00 on
9:00 reserve
12:00 prime


thats what it is i was lookin at this really closely last night

Now, mine's a '94, and it has the Prime in the upright position, which is basically gravity feed, Res is forward and On is straight down. So, if you point your's straight up (long arm of the lever up) it will be on Prime.

Jeff and Casimir,

Thanks for  the technical explanation  this thread has really cleared up a lot of things for me.

Keith

I can tell you that on my bike (92) Pri and On pull from the high pipe and only Res pulls from the low pipe. I know this because unless I want the bike to have fuel starvations issues I have to run in Prime all the time and switch to Res when I run out of gas.

Quote from: Black SnowmanI can tell you that on my bike (92) Pri and On pull from the high pipe and only Res pulls from the low pipe. I know this because unless I want the bike to have fuel starvations issues I have to run in Prime all the time and switch to Res when I run out of gas.

Hmm, that was an assumption on my part so I may very well be wrong. I figured that you would need Prime to draw from the reserve area so that you could restart the bike if you ran out of gas.

tt_four, I have a 97 and it should be the same as yours.  The 02 version must be different so don't go by that.  If you clean the metal ring around the valve you should be able to see the writing on it, it may be just really dirty.  Anyway, the lever has two stems, one is longer than the other.  The positions that I'm listing pertain to which way the longer stem is pointing.

On = 6 oclock
Res = 9 oclock
Pri = 12 oclock

Therefore, to run the bike on "on" you would point the long stem on the lever at 6 oclock down.  I never use prime unless I've drained the carbs and need to refill the floats.  I think it's possible to flood the carbs if you leave the valve on prime too much.

John L.