So I happen to run out of gas on the 91 where it meets the 5 freeway. I just had a question on switching to my reserve tank. My brother, the one who gave me the bike, told me I should be able to travel 20 miles with the reserve on after the main line runs out. I did switch to my reserve but it still ran out of gas very quickly.

When I got the bike, it was having that fuel starvation problem so I turned the cone in the petcock upside down like this:


This pretty much took care of the starvation problem, but now it seems like I have no reserve option.

Any opinions, recommendations, comments welcome. Thanks

-Eric

What year is your bike? because Mine has no OFF position. Its ON, PRI, RES.

The ON is self-explanitory.
The RES is the same RESERVE.
The PRI is whats refered to as PRIMER or 'free flow' for when your bike runs out of fuel or you do some carb work. So that you can PRIME the carbs back up...


As far as for OFF.  To my knowledge you are sadly mistaken. You probably ran it on reserve the whole time running it completely out of gas. you see the reserve, is only a small section of the tank that is recessed past the rest of the usable fuel area. the inlet to the 'regular' tank is set up higher than the inlet for the reserve.

sorry just read it.. didnt mean to come off like a jerk

Unlesss your brother messed with your chicken, you have no Off.  Nice pic from Kerry's site of petcock on Prime:

You're so bad! 

Quote from: Roadstergal on February 27, 2009, 04:06:51 PM
Unlesss your brother messed with your chicken, you have no Off.  Nice pic from Kerry's site of petcock on Prime:

I messed with the petcock and blocked off the vacuum inlet on the carb and petcock. To do this, I switch the cone and handle on the other side, so it would block off that passage for the vacuum. So now my petcock works like this:

"PRI" is on(full flow)
"RES" is reserve
"ON" is off

I found this idea through  the searches and instead of doing the JB Weld trick to the petcock, someone mentioned this. So I tried it and its worked good so far, but now I realize I was running on the full flow position.

I probably did run the whole tank out of gas, but now I'm thinking, should I run it on reserve and then when I'm running out, switch it to "PRI"(on/full flow position)?

I'll probably try it...............Maybe I'll try switching it back.........How do u guys have your petcocks for the earlier models?

I am not an old salt wit hthis particular bike either, but I "thought" the "PRIME" postion would deplete all the fuel in the tank and thus leave no reserve.  Thus, if you screw-up and drive on PRIME until the bike runs out of fuel, you are a-foot.  Is that right?

prs

Yes, you guys are correct.  With the stock set-up, ON is self-explanatory.  There is no position that shuts the fuel off.  That's what the diaphragm does when the engine isn't running.  The prime position is just like reserve except it bypasses the diaphragm so the carbs will get fuel whether the engine is running or not.  Running the bike in either prime or reserve will use all the fuel in the tank unless you pay attention to miles traveled.

I suggest doing what I do.  Run the bike on reserve all the time.  When your trip odometer tells you that you've gone about 220 miles, it's time to fill up again.  When I do this my tank takes about 3.5 gallons to refill, and I have a '94 with the smaller 4.5 gallon tank.  Yes, that's right.  I'm averaging 62 mpg! 

Thanks for the tip. I'll try it out during the week and watch my mileage too.

why would you run on reserve all the time?  why not run it in the on position that way you still have reserve if you need it? while running on reserve when your out your out. atleast running in the on position you still have resever to get you home or the the next gas station.

that's true......Times like these I wish I has a gas guage.

in the 6000 miles i put on last year i used reserve 2 times.  i always reset trip meter at every fill up and alway look for a gas station at 200 miles.  Then theres never a chance of running out of gas.

Quote from: GSrookie500 on March 02, 2009, 07:29:12 PM
that's true......Times like these I wish I has a gas guage.

Just use your trip odometer, it will work just fine as long as you have some idea of how many miles you can go on a tank of gas... I typically fill up once a week at between 100 and 130 miles without hitting reserve. That way, I fill up on the weekend when I'm not trying to rush to work or get home for dinner... Also, I haven't taken too many trips, but I'm pretty tall and I'm not sure I could ride more than 150 miles or so without needing to stretch, and what better excuse than filling up?

Bad thing about running on reserve all the time is that when you get to playin around ie. 'ridin a little hard' You wont get as many miles per gallon and end up on foot anyway..... Something to think about.

Quote from: joshr08 on March 02, 2009, 01:59:29 PM
why would you run on reserve all the time?  why not run it in the on position that way you still have reserve if you need it? while running on reserve when your out your out. atleast running in the on position you still have resever to get you home or the the next gas station.

Yep, that's what I normally do - just run it turned to on, about 235-250 miles it'll start feeling a little lower on power, switch it to reserve, continue on to work, and fill up later that day, usually on the way home.

i had my fuel tubes on the wrong valves for a day. I was unsure and i took a look the next day to find when i took the tank off they were switched around. WOOOPS

I always run mine on "on" position because my bike sometimes gets thirsty I guess. I mean once I was riding to work and had to go reserve at 150 hmm strange normally get up to 180 before reserve. But, I usually get close to 50 on reserve and figured I could make it 15 miles home from work. Got halfway home and bike just up and died. Had to push ole' boy almost a mile to the gas station at 1 o'clock in the morning! Now my bike only does this once every few months but is quite annoying!

Wonder what causes it?
Mary