Higher Gas Prices for dirty fuel -- BEWARE!

I'm located near Boston. This time of year the highways are super-busy with folks on weekend get-aways and out-of-stater's passing through for the splendor of the New Hampshire and Maine vacation spots.

Gas is in short supply. I have pulled-in to fuel stops along the interstate and gas stations on the loops of major highways and seen some of their pumps closed because the tanks they connected to are empty awaiting tank truck from the fuel depots.

Motorcycles, personal watercraft, some boats and engines taking a direct feed from their fuel tanks unprotected by a fuel filter are at risk for contaminants and sediment, now.

My Max started acting-up after a gas stop in Boston. I suspected ignition problems and discussed the matter with a close friend who is a busy, certified Yamaha tech.

He showed me a holding area with nearly a dozen bikes all having the same symptom as me. The machines were fueled at places where the supply of fuel had nearly run-out and were contaminated by fuel with containing sediment which is so fine it passes through the petcock filter right into the fuel bowls.

We XJ'er's are at risk for having the carbs get fouled with this stuff and causing the carbs to be removed and cleaned.

Your friends and neighbors with late model fuel injected machines might be, too -- although, most F/I bikes have fuel pumps and lines to the injectors protected by a filter or two.

The "Stuff" I found in the fuel bowls looked like brown mud -- the consistancy of baby powder.

 

That brown crud in your bowls will still be there with inline filters Rick.


My XS has two petcocks, each feeding two carbs each. Both fuel lines have inline filters. I put a clean set of carbs on and ran for two weeks before swapping to another set of carbs. Bowls off and sure enough all four were "loaded" with a layer of brown crud.


I think we are lucky enough not to hae too many problems if we run inlines's though. If The particles are small enough to get past the filter then they should pass through most of our jets. (Possible exception would be the tiny hole in the end of the pilot jets)

Think it's time to start working on a hydro powered bike. :wink:

 

After I finished-up cleaning the carbs (and exchanging all the fasteners with a stainless steel kit I scored off eBay for 8-bucks !!!) I went down to AutoZone and bought 2 Inline filters ... One went right on the bike before I even thought of hooking-up the gas line to the petcock ... the other one is in the way-back in case I need it on the road. The stainless kit has cap screws for the hats, bowls, both rack-tracks and the enrichment circuit cable-end bracket.

I also did a huge sanding job on the rusted and pitted carb hats ... using 220 and a high-speed grinder -- I took then down to bare metal -- hit them again with 400 -- 600 -- 800 -- 1000 - 1200 -- and then 1500 ... they shined after the 1500 ... but, "RickCoMatic" didn't stop there ... oh, no ... out came the buffers and rouges and now I have POLISHED-UP new hats on the carbs -- that are a sight to see ... and if I had the power to resize a photo to post on this site ... I put a pic in my album!!!!!!!

 

you should be able to resize the photo in MS paint... if you need direction I'd be happy to walk you through it

(PS: that means I want to see those hats ;-))