Well, i ended up the side of the road going splutter-splutter until she died. I knew i was getting to the end of the tank still on primary (345km) and figure i'd wait till reserve, just so i knew (in a controlled expectation) of what would happen if i hit reserve.
Since the bike was lowered 20mm by the PO it appears that the primary intake is now lower than reserve. Which means i was out of petrol - completely. No Primary, no reserve, no prime. Thankfully wasn't too far from home so the girlfriend could bring a jerry can. But not what i expected, to spend half an hour sitting on the side of a road.

Is this a normal thing for lowered bikes?

The reserve line is supposed to go to the plug centered (side to side) on the tank isn't it? with the primary on the left side and prime a little bit back from primary.

pretty sure the only way for the primary pickup to be lower than the reserve is if the tank is upside down.

Lowered how? Front, rear, both?

Neither fuel pick up should be  noticeably closer to the centre of the tank that I recall.  The two outlets on the bottom of the tank are one in front of the other, the longer of the two being reserve IIRC.

The only other outlet on the tank should be the breather vent, for if you over fill the tank.
Prime is not a separate fuel line, its merely a position on the petcock that bypasses the vacuum diaphragm.

Pipework correct??

http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Main.HoseRouting

Had the same problem.  Ran out of petrol, flipped the switch and NOTHING.  Checked to be sure the pipes were coming from and going to the appropriate places.  Not sure why this happens.  Maybe something is clogging the reserve valve or feed.

heheheeheh I think you have ON and Prime mixed up...

PRI is not PRIMARY its PRIME for carbs... it comes out of the same tube as the reserve

ON is the only setting that gives you a reserve tank

Quote from: crzydood17 on July 01, 2011, 06:07:19 AM
heheheeheh I think you have ON and Prime mixed up...

PRI is not PRIMARY its PRIME for carbs... it comes out of the same tube as the reserve

ON is the only setting that gives you a reserve tank

^^^^^ This 



In this pic, the frame petcock is set to ON. To the right is Pri (Prime the carbs) and the top is Res. Pri and Res came from the same place in the tank. On comes from a slightly higher position in the tank. If you've been running on Pri you've essentially been running as if you'd set it to Res.

Michael

I "rescued" a Bandit rider last year who had run her moto's tank down, then when she shifted to reserve, nothing...though we could see/hear a decent amount of fuel in the tank.

We futzed with her petcock, set it to Prime, and it fired right up.  I followed her a couple of miles to a gas station, and all was good.

I have Mrs. turn her petcock to "Reserve" every four or five tanks for around a hundred miles, just to make sure no clogging takes place.  Old biker trick taught to me by an old biker.   

When i say primary i actually mean ON. sorry, comes from dealing with a primary/reserve system at work. so yes, three position on the petcock: on (primary), pri (no vacuum), and reserve. for clarity: i was switching from the ON position over to the RES position

When i followed the pipes i thought that the RES tube attached about centre of the tank (both front-back, side-side) (at least from a cursory following with the hand, couldn't reach quite to touch the tank itself.) With the ON pipe location on the same fitting as PRI and attaching to the approximatly middle (front-back wise) and to the left (side-side).

Will check it against the provided wiki pipe routing when i get a chance.

Quote from: pave_spectre on July 01, 2011, 03:58:22 AM
Lowered how? Front, rear, both?

I believe rear only (lowered by the dogbone 20mm according to PO), it's on my to-do list to get it restored to normal factory height.

Quote from: HaydenH on July 02, 2011, 03:05:07 AM
With the ON pipe location on the same fitting as PRI

There is no separate PRI hose, only ON and RES. PRI on the petcock simply bypasses the vacuum diaphragm, to fill the carb bowls without having to turn the engine over.

The outlet at the centre of the tank should be the vent hose which will run down to the bottom right side of the frame.

Just had a chance to study that wiki routing, (thanks Sledge). i was looking at the pipes wrongly. I'll have a look tomorrow if i get a chance to mae sure everything is in the right spot.
I know that now with petrol in the tank again that the bike will run on both ON and RES. which means that they're at least connected to the fuel and it's not just a blockage.

Not sure i'll get much of a chance this weekend to poke around, but at least when i do i won't be chasing the wrong hose thinking its something its not
we live and we learn.

Would 340km be pushing the max range of just the ON fuel capacity or is this probably the entire tank range?

On my unmodified '06, 320-350km is about what I get from the "on" position in normal riding.

Your lowered rear would make no significant difference to the way the fuel system operates.

That looks like the original 89-00 petcock in sledge's pic.  The 04 and later petcocks look like the one in Michael's pic.  All tank shutoff/filter units are same with 3 different petcocks used over the years.

Quote from: crzydood17 on July 01, 2011, 06:07:19 AM
heheheeheh I think you have ON and Prime mixed up...

PRI is not PRIMARY its PRIME for carbs... it comes out of the same tube as the reserve

ON is the only setting that gives you a reserve tank

LoL  I made a similar mistake one time on a friends jetski in Gulf of Mexico...  The only difference is that the Marina  was in a cove (so no one in my party could see me as they were safely ashore with the Pontoon)  and instead of spending 1/2 an hour on the side of the road, I spent 20 minutes floating waiting for help and the next 30 minutes back stroking it back into the Marina.  95degrees, 4 hours of direct sunlight and a 30minute swing dragging a jetski I THOUGHT was empty... the bridge of my nose was so burned it turned leather like an old football.    

Oh how I miss Pensacola  

o man, thats how people die... KNOW YOUR FUEL LIMITS!

anyway, I'm now sad i was wrong too bad it would of been better for you if I was...

I would check your tube routing, if someone switched the Res/pri and On tubes at the tank it would make for the same symptoms...

Quote from: HaydenH on July 02, 2011, 04:03:22 AM
Would 340km be pushing the max range of just the ON fuel capacity or is this probably the entire tank range?

340km is right around where you need to switch to RES if your bike is in good stock condition ridden "normally", if you have the older 4.5 gallon tank like me.  If I fill-up at 220 miles (354km) it'll take about 4 gallons.  But when I tell you this I mean a fill-up is a fill-up.  This tank burps like crazy so when the fuel first reaches the top you can slowly add about half a gallon more before it's actually full.

Sounds like Sledge was right and you have the ON and RES tubes switched.

Quote from: HaydenH on July 02, 2011, 04:03:22 AM
Would 340km be pushing the max range of just the ON fuel capacity or is this probably the entire tank range?

Depends how hard you ride it and how much fuel you managed to put in the tank at the last fill.

Quote from: MysterYvil on July 01, 2011, 04:04:16 PM
I "rescued" a Bandit rider last year who had run her moto's tank down, then when she shifted to reserve, nothing...though we could see/hear a decent amount of fuel in the tank.

We futzed with her petcock, set it to Prime, and it fired right up.  I followed her a couple of miles to a gas station, and all was good.

I have Mrs. turn her petcock to "Reserve" every four or five tanks for around a hundred miles, just to make sure no clogging takes place.  Old biker trick taught to me by an old biker.   

a gravity fed fuel tank is empty even with a gallon in it

To fill up...

- Put bike on center stand
- Fill until fuel starts to come up sleeve
- reset trip meter

Fill up every 300km / 190m and you won't have a problem 

Michael

Quote from: mister on July 03, 2011, 02:59:11 AM
Fill up every 300km / 190m and you won't have a problem

That's my normal approach. I figured that being new to bikes, and not quite knowing what it would feel like if it did die (i'm sure i'll forget to reset the trip sooner or later), it would be good to at least do it once when i was expecting it to happen.
I just figured  on being able to turn the little knob and make it to a petrol station though. 

the dying thing feels like a chug on my bike the first time it misses, I start slowing regardless of throttle position I just lift my leg grab the knob and flip it... perks back up and I'm off the the station..