CURRENT MILES
22,022
So I put the super duper brand new TacoMoto Fuel Pump in the bike a few days ago. I had a few other things to work on (Safari Tanks, Studs) and it was finally time to put it all back together and hit that start button.
Guess what? It would crank, it would whirrrrrr, but it would not start! Not at all. Nothing. Nada. Zip!
UGH!
When a bike won’t start it’s usually one of the following… Air, Fuel, or Spark – right? It could be a combo, but chances are it’s just one of them.
So, I started with a general inspection of everything I touched. Every plug I unplugged. I had touched a lot too. From tip to tail I pretty much had unplugged almost everything you could unplug. Every connection, every routing of this or that.
I could hear the fuel pump making fuel pump noises so I was confident I had plugged that back in. Just in case I sent a message to TacoMoto. I told them I hadn’t gotten too deep into diagnosis yet but was positive I pulled off the shipping plugs on the motor (they were sitting on my workbench). That’s a thing.
Not me, it’s a long story but…
(the gotcha is at 4:12)
They replied with solid advice.
That’s exactly what I ask my Website clients when something goes wrong – “What was the last thing you did?“.
Mostly, that would have been my fuel pump. Like I said, I could hear it, but I did not have a way to check to see if I was getting fuel pressure where I needed it. TacoMoto makes a really cool tester too!
It’s cool because it fits right into the system and still allows the bike to run. It plugs right in to here:
Needing something now, I stopped by my local auto parts place. They had the gauge portion but not the connector parts. The gauge alone was $50. I checked another place with the same results. I found one on Amazon that isn’t going to do the cool same flow through thing while it’s running, but it will tell me thh base pressure.
So I ordered it. It’ll still take too long to get here.
Out of options, I decided the only place left to look was the hidden place inside the gas tank.
I had about 2 gallons in the tank. I tilted it up and slowly loosened up the four bolts until It started to leak. I had my clean oil pan under which I was holding on a slant so it would then drain into the funnel and gas can I had propped up next to the bike. Just in case, I had the wife hold the funnel and we caught pretty much all of it as it dripped off the bottom of the tank.
Next I started to pull the base plate out. I noticed that the top of my cover hadn’t stayed latched. I don’t think of that as being a huge issue. It wasn’t latched when I pulled the stock one out either. Sorry, my camera decided to focus on my tire knobs instead. But you get the point.
Just a little further, The pump connections all looked fine, I got to the filter and …what is this? Can you see it?
Could that be the reason for my NON START? That’s definitely not supposed to be that way. This is coming out of the filter (pressure side).
I took it all the way out and put it on the bench. That’s not a good thing at all.
It certainly was kinked.
When I was replacing the pump last week, I remembered TacoMoto having a few different sized hoses in the kit. I used only one of them at the time. That would have been from the pump to the filter. This kinked portion was from the filter to the connector. It was one of the original hoses. I had the spare parts still and found the one I think fit best.
It’s shorter that the kinked one but with the longer TacoMoto Filter I think this would give me the right overall length.
I looked at the top cover clamps again and decided I could make sure they stayed put. Just a small couple of holes and a little safety wire. I drilled for four but decided that just two spots would be enough.
The new configuration looked a little better this time.
As a comparison, here’s what the old (new one) looked like before being kinked in the bike. You can see just how long the pressure side was.
With everything tight and secure I put it carefully all back in. I didn’t want to kink another one. I got the bike back to the point I could start it, added a 1/4 gallon of gas and it started right up!
PHEW!!!!!
When my cheapo fuel pressure gauge gets here I’ll check the pressure and see what I’m getting and update this post.
He's an avid hockey fan, rides a mountain bike, sometimes rides a road bike, has a few motorcycles (he had a really fast one, had a big cool orange one, rode a really slow one, and is currently building a perfect "BDR Weapon"). If that isn't enough, he makes cheese and sourdough bread, loves strong beer and good red wine, and poorly plays the Mandolin.
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