Ran Out of Gas :(

[az3200]

Hey guys. Merry Christmas!!!

I'm coming to you with another issues I just had yesterday with my bike. I ran out of gas ((

Now it's my understanding that the long side of the petcock hand pointed down would be the "on" setting. Reserve would be the long side of the handle pointed forward. correct?

Well I was riding with the switch pointed down, the bike started losing power then stalled, so I switched the petcock to the reserve (forward) . well even after that the bike wouldn't start. Opened the tank, shook the bike and it was bone dry. I went and got gas, filled the tank and teh bike starts.

Does the petcock need to be rebuilt? Maybe the gas hoses aren't connected properly? Any insight would be great!

[CC Cowboy]

Reset the odometer after each fill up and watch your miles. It's the safest way to not run out of gas.

[rojoracing53]

Originally Posted by CC Cowboy

Reset the odometer after each fill up and watch your miles. It's the safest way to not run out of gas.

^what he said

Sorry we don't have a reserve on our 2008+ bikes so I can't help but I know it's not uncommon for your petcock no get plugged up on only one side.

[lgk]

have a fuel gauge on my new gen, but still agree with watching the odo too.

[FrugalNinja250]

If the bike is never run on reserve then the reserve side can get plugged up with sediment. A less likely scenario is an internal petcock failure that could allow fuel from the reserve side to drain through the normal side and thus run the tank dry without being on reserve.

As a future hint, if you can pull over and stop then lean the bike hard over to the left you can slosh some fuel from the right side of the tank over to the left side and get a few more miles that way.

It wouldn't be a bad idea at this point to remove and disassemble the petcock for inspection and cleaning.

[Motofool]

Originally Posted by az3200

.....Does the petcock need to be rebuilt? Maybe the gas hoses aren't connected properly? Any insight would be great!

Petcock and hoses should be OK, the tank may have looked dry, but you should have had some fuel inside the tank (hard to see from the tank cap).

"Reserve" filter inside the tank may be clogged.
You can try counter-flushing it with air, keeping the tank cap open.
Need to take petcock off the tank in order to thoroughly clean the mesh (careful; big oval O-ring could be damaged).

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_doe...e_tank_work%3F

Once the "On" fuel is depleted, it takes some time (~1 minute of engine cranking) for the "Reserve" fuel to fill up the bowl of the carbs.

As others advised, try to fill up after each 180~200 miles.

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/How_far..._%22reserve%22

http://faq.ninja250.org/wiki/Rebuild...tcock/fuel_tap

Merry Christmas to you !!!

[az3200]

well, after dealing with another problem (throttle cable broke) and replacing it, I've realized something is wrong with my petcock. When I took the tank off, I switched it to off and replaced the cable. Put everything back together and drove around. After about 60 miles I realized it was still switched to off, so I put the handle pointing down to on and have been riding it like that since.

what should my next steps be to identify/fix problem?

[Motofool]

That is not good because your bowls could overflow and fill the crankcase with gasoline.

That will be very bad for the lubrication of the engine; hence, while you fix that problem, keep an eye on the level of oil and don't start the engine if the level is too high suddenly.

The last link of the post above should suffice to service the petcock.

[az3200]

Originally Posted by Motofool

That is not good because your bowls could overflow and fill the crankcase with gasoline.

That will be very bad for the lubrication of the engine; hence, while you fix that problem, keep an eye on the level of oil and don't start the engine if the level is too high suddenly.

The last link of the post above should suffice to service the petcock.

I also forgot one thing. While I had the tank off the bike and resting on a cardbord box, I moved the petcock from off to on, to res. On each setting no gas would come out. There was gas in the tank too. I tried this all with the gas cap closed, and with it open. I don't know why nothing came out but I've been riding it with no issues, I actually just got off it.

[alex.s]

it is a vacuum operated petcock feed. even in "on" unless its a prime like the newgen will not leak gas without a vacuum applied to open the valve.