Out of the frying pan...into the petrol fire (nearly)

brucewayne

brucewayne

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After fitting two fuel disconnects on Thursday night I thought i'd nip out quickly on the bike tonight, to get some takeaway.

When filling up in Shell the petrol just started pouring out of both breather hoses, and didn't stop. I messed the forecourt up and when the attendant could be arsed to help, the spillage also filled a green petrol can and 3 drinks bottles with fuel from the hoses.
The bike was on the centre stand and I just could not believe how much has pissed out of the breathers.
What have I done wrong? overfilled? caused a vacuum somewhere???

The tank still seemed to have more than 1/2 in it after all this and so I made for home. Only to find that my battery was almost dead and the AA had to help.

It's home now, trickle charging while I wonder what the fuel drama was all about???
Probably irrelevant but my info display stopped working this week also, power/light but no readout???

Any ideas or similar experiences welcome...
 
brucewayne said:
When filling up in Shell the petrol just started pouring out of both breather hoses, and didn't stop. ...
Click to expand...

Have you removed the fuel pump housing recently, or the filler cap ?

it sounds like the breather and drain internal pipes have come off the fuel pump housing inside the tank.

This also one of the reasons not to blow the drain pipe clear with a high pressure airline
 
I see... it took bmw 8 years to decide these were essential.. which means they're probably not. and from the few posts i've just ploughed through seem to open a whole can of worms. fine.. fine...
 
tony.nottm said:
I see... it took bmw 8 years to decide these were essential.. which means they're probably not. and from the few posts i've just ploughed through seem to open a whole can of worms. fine.. fine...
Click to expand...

They're not essential, but they are bloody useful :thumb2

No more clamping pipes to remove tanks, or running the bike empty to do the same...and you can get an additional half QD, attach it to a bit of tube and squirt petrol into another bike in seconds rather than siphoning and mucking about.

They don't really cause any probs, apart from pinched o rings if not connected carefully causing leaks occasionally.
 
Fanum said:
They're not essential, but they are bloody useful :thumb2

No more clamping pipes to remove tanks, or running the bike empty to do the same...and you can get an additional half QD, attach it to a bit of tube and squirt petrol into another bike in seconds rather than siphoning and mucking about.

They don't really cause any probs, apart from pinched o rings if not connected carefully causing leaks occasionally.
Click to expand...
And if you put a fuel tap on the other end you can fill your cooker when camping, saving on carring a fuel bottle about.
 
Steptoe said:
Have you removed the fuel pump housing recently, or the filler cap ?

it sounds like the breather and drain internal pipes have come off the fuel pump housing inside the tank.

This also one of the reasons not to blow the drain pipe clear with a high pressure airline
Click to expand...

Thanks Steptoe....yes I have removed the filler cap a couple of weeks ago.
Will check I've put it back properly now.
 
fuel leak

I did the sme thing if it happens agin bend the pipes double at the ends and
cable tie, tape it in place lastred on mine ok, You'll find the pipes have come
off inside the tank cabled ties will hold them on if you've got no clips.
Good luck but don't worry if you can't take a joke don't buy a GS!!! The qd connectors are worth their weight in gold so easy to take of the tank.
Dave (Abba Fan) GS.
 
davegs said:
I did the sme thing if it happens agin bend the pipes double at the ends and
cable tie, tape it in place lastred on mine ok, You'll find the pipes have come
off inside the tank cabled ties will hold them on if you've got no clips.
Good luck but don't worry if you can't take a joke don't buy a GS!!! The qd connectors are worth their weight in gold so easy to take of the tank.
Dave (Abba Fan) GS.
Click to expand...
The metal ones also cost "their weight in gold" too:thumb.
It seems that as fitted by BMW the Q/D's have 2 O rings , but trying to re-fit with 2 new O-rings is pretty much impossible. They seem to do the job with just one O-ring, however.
I also found Sherlocks to be cheapest for O-rings, around 50p each, as opposed to BWM at £1.40 a pop .
 
I got my disconnects from Hein Gericke (M8) £15 each in black and they cut off both ends.

Had a quick look inside the tank this morning and there they were like 2 black snakes swimming around in the petrol....no wonder! I'll be submitting myself for the Darwin awards shortly.

PS. Does it matter which way round these connect back?



I'm just left with the matter of the RID...it has power and lights up but no LCD at all, zero info.
Have tried fuse no 3 removal with ignition off and this doesn't seem to reset it, I also had the unit off yesterday and could not see any sign of moisture or water ingress????
 
Display unit

99% it will be the battery.
dave )Abba Fan) GS
 
Last edited:
brucewayne said:
I got my disconnects from Hein Gericke (M8) £15 each in black and they cut off both ends.

Had a quick look inside the tank this morning and there they were like 2 black snakes swimming around in the petrol....no wonder! I'll be submitting myself for the Darwin awards shortly.

PS. Does it matter which way round these connect back?
Click to expand...
Doesn't really matter which way round as far as I know ---they both just vent to the outside world, one for petrol or water(rain) drain-off, the other allows air into the tank to replace fuel used, via the "roll-over valve" near the filler cap.

PS DaveGS/Abba fan -shouldn't you be tidying up the house for swmbo ? - not looking at GS Forum -bad boy:hide
 
davegs said:
99% it will be the battery.
dave )Abba Fan) GS
Click to expand...

It's little wonder the battery was dead....Haynes manual quotes a decent battery will lose 1% per day if unused. Mine was being stripped down for errrr 3 mths....that'll be 90%...as I said, Darwin awards.

But I have trickle charged it for 10 hrs now and she starts and operares fine, all except the RID...still nothing???
 
No expert on this, but it must pretty certainly NOT be getting any volts, 'specially if all 3 aspects are not functioning (fuel/oil temp/gear position . Is it lighting up at all ?

Check that the fuse is actually seating properly in the fuse box -mine sometimes un-seats itself ...don't ask, I have no idea why ! Guess you'll need to get the voltmeter out and start a systematic check.
Also, bit technical this, but give the cable that supplies the RID a good wiggle around -could be a fault on the cable itself- maybe where it is "cable-tied" somewhere perhaps ?
However, I'm sure someone will come up with more constructive help - I'm just thinking aloud !!!
 
Does anything work on the RID ?

If not check where it plugs into the loom. Under front of tank, top of the frame, middle lower plug.
 
Yeah, I followed the wiring back to under the tank, unplugged socket and cleaned, put back. Still nothing. The RID does light up (the 3 or 4 yellow leds at the top which illuminate it) but no info showing on the lcds at all????
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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