going to fuel reserve too soon

[kbart1]

hello guys

as we have had some amazing weather out here on the "wet" coast of canada i have been logging a fair bit of miles on my X and loving it. my insurance is up on the 12th of oct so soon enough it will be back into the garage to continue on tinkering with the bike rather than riding it i thought i would go out on one last ride over to vancouver island for the long weekend as a final fling. on my ride over my bike started displaying the symptoms of being out of gas so i quickly switched over to reserve and carried on. i noticed my odo only showed 120kms from when i last fueled up??? i stopped for gas a few minutes later and could only squeeze 12 litres into the tank, even my maths not great but that means i still had 8 litres in the tank?? why the reserve was required i dont know? i por15'd the tank and put a new fuel strainer on the petcock after cleaning it up real well, assembled it all as per the manual! i am running an inline fuel filter but it looks VERY clean. anybody ever had this problem before? any ideas what it could be? its almost as if the bottom half of the strainer is plugged or something? by the way, when the bike is getting fuel it runs awsome so i don't think its an internal carb situation. also once you switch to resrve and the bowls re-fill it continues on strong. i would be interested in you thoughts and comments.

thanks a lot!
kent

[Larry Zimmer]

Hi, Kent,

I've experienced the same thing: once a year ago riding in some 85F weather clear day at steady 75 mph about 120 miles; and, twice this year in near 90F doing about the same thing. First time, switching to reserve seemed to fix the problem; same result as you when I filled the tank. This year, I switched to reserve, it was about 1 mile before things improved -- filled the tank. Again, not low fuel. Later, when it occurred, I just continued riding at (forced) reduced power. It self-corrected after about 2 miles. Again, not low fuel. Nothing since. I've done as you have: checked all filters; and, installed an in-line. My suspicion is a temporary blockage of the tank vent in the fuel cap, for reasons unkonown. (I also checked the cap vent to be certain it was open.) I have not been able to prove this to be the problem. A subsequent trip in 100F temperatures did not show any problem. HOWEVER, during that trip, I stopped more frequently for various reasons. That could have given the tank time to do some 'recovery' before having a 'seizure'. One thing to try: pull over immediately, shut-down, open the cap, close the cap and get down the road. If the problem is gone -- probably the vent. That's my next step. How to fix the vent -- I'm working on that.
I'll try to get back to this post next year after a trip or two to let you know how it goes.