Ah yes via muscle memory (volvo) or just pure blissful unawareness I put Diesel into the 1250, how could one do such a thing you ask ? Life! Shit happens.
Anyway thought I'd put together a quick thread on learnings to correct such a scenario. It was about 3/4 tank so I took off unknowing up the motorway with diesel in the tank. She lost acceleration first when twisting and felt like it was going to cut out. Did this for a few kms. So pulled off at next junction and headed home on backroads. Then threw up workshop warnings in orange then red. So pulled in (at this point I didn't put 2 and 2 together assumed some bad petrol).
So had a look around at connections to sparks and lines etc couldn't see anything so called road side assist for Tow home. Whilst waiting 90 mins for them I flashed back in my brain to picking up the black handled pump and the sense of dread swept over. Fk it you fool.
So got home in back of van with firm direction to sort it out. Haven't had the GS tank off before so wasn't sure what to expect. (Tank removal is not required, cover this later)
First port of call drain the tank out. I recommend an oil pump, I've a small one from lidl that connects to 12v battery. Took a 5 mins to drain the full tank into a 25 litre drum I have around.
Then stripped the plastics (plenty of youtube videos on this but is fairly straightforward)
Removed tank , it has 1 fuel supply line and 2 electrical connections. I took it off to see what was beneath. But the fuel line just goes straight to a T and out either side to the injectors. The pump and filter built into tank. I turned tank on its side and used pump to take any last remnants out of it. See tankless picks.
I then used a shop vacuum to suck anything out of the fuel lines to the injectors (probably pointless there's a simpler way)
Removed injectors to see if they had any clogging. Cleaned them off and then removed plugs to clean them off. Put the tank back on and connected everything put petrol into it and tried starting. Not much joy and the battery was starting to drain.
So now to the proper way ! In 5 mostly easy steps.
You can leave the tank on for all of this and the plastics.
1 - Empty tank of diesel.
2 - Disconnect the fuel lines from the injectors each side. There is a copper square clip that holds the lines 90 degree connector to the top of the Injector . You'll have to Removed the T25 from the connector fixing bracket and give the 90degree elbow a few solid tugs to get it off the injector. Pic below.
3 - throw in about 4 litres of petrol into tank and put each fuel line into an old jar, turn the power button on don't start the bike. This will cycle the fuel pump from the tank and petrol will pull through the pipes to clear out any diesel into your jar, power button on and off a few times to cycle petrol through the filter the pump and the pipes. I did this about 10 times
4 - Now the injectors, if you drove bike like me they'll be stuff full of diesel. If you haven't you'll get away with not doing this bit. Remove injectors from cylinder head just pull out. They have 2 electrical connectors on them which open the injectors to allow fuel in. You can open and close the valve with a 12 volt battery and some crocodile leads. I put some carb cleaner in the end and opened the valve with the 12v you should hear tiny click. Just blew through them with my mouth and the cleaner and diesel crap should spray out in a couple of Vshaped patterns. I did this a few times to each injector to make sure cleaned out. Then ran some air through it to dry.
5 - finally the plugs, remove the plugs and using a lighter dried them out. Noticed the tolerances were way off on both so adjusted them (plenty other information out there on this)
Now put it all back together and powered the button a few more times to prime the lines up with fuel. I started the bike 3 times but she was struggling, it did fire and die. So had to add a portable battery charger to boost. She fired up straight away and nice poof of diesel smoke out the back for a few minutes until it all burned away. Left it to run for 5 minutes then stopped and started to make sure she was working. Needs a good solid hot ride out to burn away any remnants. But back to normal. Warnings cleared after a few starts.
So there you go. Don't be a wally, but if you are see above. Best of luck!
Advise swapping plugs and an oil change for precaution.
Anyway thought I'd put together a quick thread on learnings to correct such a scenario. It was about 3/4 tank so I took off unknowing up the motorway with diesel in the tank. She lost acceleration first when twisting and felt like it was going to cut out. Did this for a few kms. So pulled off at next junction and headed home on backroads. Then threw up workshop warnings in orange then red. So pulled in (at this point I didn't put 2 and 2 together assumed some bad petrol).
So had a look around at connections to sparks and lines etc couldn't see anything so called road side assist for Tow home. Whilst waiting 90 mins for them I flashed back in my brain to picking up the black handled pump and the sense of dread swept over. Fk it you fool.
So got home in back of van with firm direction to sort it out. Haven't had the GS tank off before so wasn't sure what to expect. (Tank removal is not required, cover this later)
First port of call drain the tank out. I recommend an oil pump, I've a small one from lidl that connects to 12v battery. Took a 5 mins to drain the full tank into a 25 litre drum I have around.
Then stripped the plastics (plenty of youtube videos on this but is fairly straightforward)
Removed tank , it has 1 fuel supply line and 2 electrical connections. I took it off to see what was beneath. But the fuel line just goes straight to a T and out either side to the injectors. The pump and filter built into tank. I turned tank on its side and used pump to take any last remnants out of it. See tankless picks.
I then used a shop vacuum to suck anything out of the fuel lines to the injectors (probably pointless there's a simpler way)
Removed injectors to see if they had any clogging. Cleaned them off and then removed plugs to clean them off. Put the tank back on and connected everything put petrol into it and tried starting. Not much joy and the battery was starting to drain.
So now to the proper way ! In 5 mostly easy steps.
You can leave the tank on for all of this and the plastics.
1 - Empty tank of diesel.
2 - Disconnect the fuel lines from the injectors each side. There is a copper square clip that holds the lines 90 degree connector to the top of the Injector . You'll have to Removed the T25 from the connector fixing bracket and give the 90degree elbow a few solid tugs to get it off the injector. Pic below.
3 - throw in about 4 litres of petrol into tank and put each fuel line into an old jar, turn the power button on don't start the bike. This will cycle the fuel pump from the tank and petrol will pull through the pipes to clear out any diesel into your jar, power button on and off a few times to cycle petrol through the filter the pump and the pipes. I did this about 10 times
4 - Now the injectors, if you drove bike like me they'll be stuff full of diesel. If you haven't you'll get away with not doing this bit. Remove injectors from cylinder head just pull out. They have 2 electrical connectors on them which open the injectors to allow fuel in. You can open and close the valve with a 12 volt battery and some crocodile leads. I put some carb cleaner in the end and opened the valve with the 12v you should hear tiny click. Just blew through them with my mouth and the cleaner and diesel crap should spray out in a couple of Vshaped patterns. I did this a few times to each injector to make sure cleaned out. Then ran some air through it to dry.
5 - finally the plugs, remove the plugs and using a lighter dried them out. Noticed the tolerances were way off on both so adjusted them (plenty other information out there on this)
Now put it all back together and powered the button a few more times to prime the lines up with fuel. I started the bike 3 times but she was struggling, it did fire and die. So had to add a portable battery charger to boost. She fired up straight away and nice poof of diesel smoke out the back for a few minutes until it all burned away. Left it to run for 5 minutes then stopped and started to make sure she was working. Needs a good solid hot ride out to burn away any remnants. But back to normal. Warnings cleared after a few starts.
So there you go. Don't be a wally, but if you are see above. Best of luck!
Advise swapping plugs and an oil change for precaution.
A close shave and something I now double check each time!
Do tell
