Ran out of gas again today. 1.7 gallons to fill up. ?

Ok I keep running my Seca out of gas. I ran out today and coasted to a station and filled to the absolute top of the tank for only 1.7 gallons.
Where should I start looking for a reason why it is running out of gas after buring only 1.7 gallons?

Also, my petcock isn't labeled. What are the settings for on, reserve and the other? I assume On is straight up.

Thanks as always for the assistance.

 

Chuck ...

You have to see if you are losing gas into the Crankcase.

Remove the Oil Filler Cap and take a wiff of whats in the Crankcase.
If you smell Gas inn there ... we have to consider that you have some stuck floats.

I don't know how far you are going on 1.7 Gallons. But you should be getting Mid-30's I would guess.

What work have you done on the Carbs?
Is everything Stock or have you got Mods?
How are you riding? Easy or aggressive?

Tell the story and we'll get to the bottom of it.

 

Rick,
I got 60 miles of in town driving.
I don't think my problem is distance, it is more a problem if running out of gas after having burned only 1.7 gallons.
I know the bikes have a bigger tank than 1.7 gallons.

I went from the bike dying with zero gas to filling it with 1.7 gallons to full. Therein is my problem.
Do you think the fuel line is pushed up into my tank or something?

 

Aloha Chuck,
I gave myself a cushion by taking a plastic military gas can and strapping it to the back of my bike. If I run out of gas, I am set enough to get me to a gas station. I can't remember the size of it, but it is only a couple liters or so. It is OD Green, so it might not go with a standard SECA paint scheme, though I suppose you can always paint it.
Also, somewhere on here someone gave a link about an extra trevel-tank or something. If your issue is just that you don't have as much gas as you like, that might be something to look into.
Marko

 

What bike do you have? You should post it on your signature......
Postions for the fuel petcock on my 750 Seca: On is straight up and down, Prime is with the logn end to the rear of the bike and reserve is the long end to the front of the bike. If there isn't a gas smell in the oil, try turning the fuel valve to prime and try restarting, if it starts, turn it back to On.
Have you cleaned the gas tank? Perhaps the tower is clogged........

 

the vent in the gas cap might be clogged, if it happens again open the cap and see if it starts
but

if it was really empty and you filled it with 1.7 gal then you have a 1.7 gal tank

 

I have a 1982 650 Seca. I think the initial specs are a 4.5 or so gallon tank and 200 mile range.

I am going to take my tank off and take apart the fuel lines and see if something is clogging up in the tank and making me not be able to use all if the fuel or something....

 

If you are running an inline fuel filter ... check it for flow capacity.

I had a inline fuel filter on my bike that showed it was perfectly clean when I looked through the plastic at the element ... but, wasn't passing enough fuel through the filter to keep up with demand.

When I started looking for why the Bike was suffering from Fuel Starvation, I pulled the filter and tried blowing through it ... and found the element to be a non-porous material unsuited for filtration.

I tossed that filter out and went with one costing a dollar more.
A Fram inline.
I haven't had a problem, since.

You have to investigate the possibility that your Petcock Screen isn't fouled with foreign matter.
That the petcock screen is in the petcock ... in the correct direction.

And just for sh!ts and grins ... run the petcock vacuum line to another manifold vacuum port to insure it isnt getting kinked or collapsing on itself from the vacuum it takes.

Strange.
Very strange.

 

How about running the inline fuel filter up and down, instead of on its side like in some pics I've seen here.?

 

This one has me intrigued. Am very curious to know what the answer is; must be a fuel blockage at a certian point in the tank's capacity. Or the fuel lines.
Or someone's filled the tank with about 2.5 gallons worth of concrete, or fibreglass!!

 

I'd be looking in there to see if somebody was trying to smuggle in some really good smoke into America.

If that's the case ... you can't keep it and will have to send it to the Carb Lab c/o Me.

It will be analyzed and tested by one of our on-duty lab technicians and then turned over to the F.B.I.C.F.

First Bong I Can Find

 

Haha. No smoke stashed in the tank.
I just siphoned off the gas in the tank and I appear to have about 4 gallons. I am going to proceed with taking the tank off and the petcock off to see what I can find. Lots of rust particles came out with the siphon hose though, so I suspect I have a fair amount of built up rust in there probably leading to my problem.

 

Ok so I took the tank off and dumped out the rest of the remaining gas. Huge rust particles and lots of them were sloshing around inside the tank. The petcock came out ok and looked decent, so that's good.

Got the hose out and flushed the tank with lots of water to remove the rest of the rust particles. Got all the water out and put only about 1.5 gallons of gas back in and she fired right up. (before I was only able to use 1.7 gallons of the 4 or so gallon tank) So I think the mystery is solved. Now what to do with the 1/2 liter of gas I have in a bowl whose bottom is lined with rust particles....

I am still unsure what the petcock settings for my bike are. It goes 180 degrees from straight up to straight down. Anyone know which way is reserve?

 

Strain the gas through a cloth and burn it.............. It's too expensive to through away.............

 

ANT EXTERMINATION! :twisted:

 

Strain it through a coffee filter ... use it to run the mower!

 

I'd run it through a coffee filter and mix it in with a whole tank of hi test.