The yeller light

[guitarman]

At what point should this light come on ? According to the manual it's when there's 4 litres in the tank yet on a recent trip to France some motorway blasting saw it light up at 140 miles and yet I filled up soon after and only got 15 litres in the tank (i.e. still supposedly 6 or 7 litres left in the tank)

Back on the A roads the little bugger came on just before 200 miles and needed 18 litres to fill up.

I did have a problem when I got the bike that it couldn't "see" 4 litres of the tank. This was blamed on poor maintenance and an incorrectly set float in the tank by the Germans (it was an used import) and it was fixed under warranty by the dealer.

Does anybody know how the light works and how I might have been losing 4 litres ?

Cheers

gman

 

[wessie]

when on motorways you tend to stay almost upright all the time

on A roads etc you are using the brakes, leaning the bike and then rapidly accelerating which sloshes the petrol around the tank

this moves the fuel from the tank lobe without the petrol feed which does not happen on motorways

next time the yellow light comes on roll the bike from side to side a few times - the yellow light will go out for a couple of miles

 

[guitarman]

Good theory Wessie but that doesn't explain why on the journey down on the same motorway travelling at "sensible" speeds I got the yellow light after 170 miles and needed 18 litres when I filled up.

On the journey back from Dover I got the fuel light at 160 miles and only needed 16 litres when I filled up soon after.

It seems the light comes on with between 7 and 4 litres left in the tank and although I'd like to subscribe to your theory Mr W it doesn't seem to be borne out by my experiences.

All I'm concerned about is I've no way of knowing if I've 4 or 7 litres left ! I gave up very quickly trusting the gauge itself. 3 bars for 100 miles then 6 bars in the next 50.........sometimes.

Cheers anyway

 

[Paul Wakefield]

FWIW, I find the bars fairly consistent. I agree they do not decrease linearly but they are fairly predictable - About 3 bars in the first 100 miles, the rest over the next 80 to 90 odd.

The yellow light on mine comes on when there is around 18/19l used. Most people seem to struggle to get more than about 20.5l in the tank so, unless you are sure, do not assume that you have at least 4l left when the light comes on.

I think Wessie's theory still holds - it doesn't take all that much movement to get the petrol from the "blind" side.

Paul

 

[guitarman]

I've had the GS for a year now and I can't find any consistency with the bars and what's left in the tank. On my normal ride to work (40 miles of various roads) I've had no bars left and only put in 16 litres and two bars left and needed 19 litres.

I've also just noticed the thread in the general chat which seems to cover most of what we've already said in that some people get consistent readings and some don't.

Ho hum ..... boring thread anyway.

Cheers

gm

 

[DavidHolmes]

Boring thread?

Well Guitarman,

here I am now, entertain me...etc etc

 

[Jimb]

Two solutions

As far as I have read there are two possible solutions to your problem.

1. A gent in Seattle USA sells a kit that uses a siphoning method to use the fuel in both lobes of the tank simutaneously, once installed and primed needs no further attenition unless you run out of fuel completely, $25.00 US inc shipping to the UK. This allows you to use more of the fuel in the tank.

John Jensen johnjen@attbi.com

2. Reposition the fuel filter from inside the tank to outside see

www.ibmwr.org/r-tech/oilheads/extern_fuel_filter.shml

this will give a little more capacity in the tank and makes it a simple task to change the fuel filter when you need to.

Hope this helps

 

[guitarman]

Hi David,

Dang ge de dang ge de dang ge de dang.
Trouble in mind .......
Dang ge de dang ge de dang ge de dang.

Kerrang kerrang kerrang !

Stay cool

guitarman