Last year I gave my 500E a pretty thorough tune up, which included replacing all the fuel lines and disabling the vacuum shutoff on the petcock. I recently replaced my inline fuel filter. The bike seems to run ok now, but when I look at the fuel filter, there's a lot of air inside it, in relation to fuel. So it looks like I'm not getting a a great flow down into the filter. Is that normal?

The other thing is my fuel lines are a little longer than they really need to be and kind of snake down and back up when connecting to the petcock and then to the carb. It's so I have a little more play if I take the tank off, etc. Do you guys normally cut fuel lines as short as possible? I'm also wondering if the internal diameter of my fuel lines may be too small. Is there a particular type of tubing people use? I am using some heavy duty Good Year tubing I got from an auto parts store.

And for that matter, should I look into getting a specific filter? Mine is a fat cylinder, about 1 1/4 in diameter with some corrugated paper inside. I got it from my local cycle shop.

Thanks!

I went to online McMaster Carr and bought 7mm tubing meant for gasoline.  Their item picking interface is pretty awesome.  I too had long hoses when I replaced mine but I cut them shorter because they were hanging low enough to be seen and it's pretty obvious with lime green tubing.  I ran out of gas at one point and I think the long hoses made it harder to get the fuel back to the engine when I filled it back up.  One last thing.  Make sure you don't have the hoses switched!  That was how I ran out of gas.

I don't think you will have an issue with the longer hoses.I didn't. 1/4 inch or 7mm ID hose is more than enough to supply the carbs.I did have an episode with a paper filter that wasn't capable of flowing enough fuel at high rpms, and caused the engine to die out.Trapped air in the filter shouldn't be a big deal.All of mine have it, and I have experienced no issues.Placing the filter in a more vertical position will help the air flow through.I would position it so the air would try to flow back to the tank instead of to the carbs.

Quote from: ben2go on May 04, 2011, 10:23:24 AM
I don't think you will have an issue with the longer hoses.I didn't. 1/4 inch or 7mm ID hose is more than enough to supply the carbs.I did have an episode with a paper filter that wasn't capable of flowing enough fuel at high rpms, and caused the engine to die out.Trapped air in the filter shouldn't be a big deal.All of mine have it, and I have experienced no issues.Placing the filter in a more vertical position will help the air flow through.I would position it so the air would try to flow back to the tank instead of to the carbs.

Thanks, I'll try repositioning the filter a little more vertically. I think I'll order up one of those smaller cone filters to be on the safe side, too. It's kind of a tight fit in there, as I'm sure everyone knows.

Is there any type of fuel hose that people generally like? The kind I put on is super thick. It looks rugged, but it's hard to work with.

Quote from: twelvepoint on May 04, 2011, 10:58:37 AM
Is there any type of fuel hose that people generally like? The kind I put on is super thick. It looks rugged, but it's hard to work with.

Thick is good. Thinwall hose is prone to kink and cut off flow. OTOH, if you are using thick reinforced rubber automotive pressure hose (seems possible given you said it came from auto-parts store) that might be a bit more than is needed (and hard to get both hoses on the tank petcock.)

I personally use 5/16" polyurethane fuel hose, which I bought from CycleRecyle Part II since they seemed to have the best price with shipping for it, and many sizes. I also suggest getting a couple of feet of 1/8", makes using the carb drains much more convenient.

Long-ish hoses are fine, and make it possible to get the tank on and off reasonably.

Quote from: twelvepoint on May 04, 2011, 10:58:37 AM

Quote from: ben2go on May 04, 2011, 10:23:24 AM
I don't think you will have an issue with the longer hoses.I didn't. 1/4 inch or 7mm ID hose is more than enough to supply the carbs.I did have an episode with a paper filter that wasn't capable of flowing enough fuel at high rpms, and caused the engine to die out.Trapped air in the filter shouldn't be a big deal.All of mine have it, and I have experienced no issues.Placing the filter in a more vertical position will help the air flow through.I would position it so the air would try to flow back to the tank instead of to the carbs.

Thanks, I'll try repositioning the filter a little more vertically. I think I'll order up one of those smaller cone filters to be on the safe side, too. It's kind of a tight fit in there, as I'm sure everyone knows.

Is there any type of fuel hose that people generally like? The kind I put on is super thick. It looks rugged, but it's hard to work with.

Tygon is the fuel hose that alot of us use.Ebay or McMaster Carr is the place to get it.The size is 1/4 inch(.25) inside diameter (ID) or 7mm,8mm will work with hose clamps.It is thinner than off the shelf auto type fuel hose and stiff enough to resist collapse.I like the small pinch type hose clamps or small zip ties to hold the hoses on.A lot of people just use a push fit with no clamps. I ride on a lot of rough back country roads,so I feel that I need something to hold the hoses in place.

Just to add to this, I did some googling and found that you want to order the following part from McMaster...

5552K25 - Tygon F-4040-A

http://www.mcmaster.com/#5552k25/=cflalo

Wow, I placed an order yesterday with McMaster Carr and just used regular ground shipping and it arrived today.

Very impressed. Unfortunately, I won't have time to install it until next weekend

shawn