Scary moment...

Hi all,

Went on the North Circular today to see a client today and just on the section leading up to the Blackwall Tunnel, ... it cut out. No emergency strip, just the road and then a bank with grass and trees.

Three lane highway, trucks passing me barely 50cm away from my right leg at 50mph. It wouldn't start. I pushed it 500 yards to a section where I could get away from the traffic. Parked up and had a closer look. The glass fuel filter was empty. Fiddled a bit with the pipe and then the fuel started running again. I waited until the floats were full and presto, it went again. I hopped on thinking I managed to shift a bit of dirt. Fuel gauge told me there was half a tank.

2 miles on, same thing happened. I managed to reach (pushed again - heavy things these bikes!) a petrol station and opened the tank - no petrol left whatsoever!

So: gauge faulty.

As the tank is from that bike I have fitted a standard fuel sender from a 2006 Kawasaki Zephyr 1100, and linked that to the Acewell digital speedo. The Acewell manual is translated from Chinese and therefore difficult to follow.

Settings in the Acewell menu for the fuel gauge are: Off, -100, -250, -500, Res.

No idea what these mean. 'Off' is obvious, but any other setting shows half a tank when empty and a full tank when full...

Anyone has any idea? I now know what mileage I can do with a full tank, so can keep an eye out on that, but I really don't want to repeat my experience again.

Cheers
Paul

They refer to ohms, from memory our bike's fuel sender is zero to 100 ohms in operation? Not sure what the sender resistance range is for a Zephyr, you'd have to do a bit of delving. When I set my Acewell to the "100" range (I still have the original Z1300 sender) it shows a full tank fine but then flashes empty with still half a tank left ...go figure

Thanks Phil,

OK I will set to -100 and see what happens. The Kawasaki fuel senders all seem very similar, but will try to do some digging online.

This was the first time I had to tank again after filling up completely when I got the bike back with a working exhaust, and setting the odometer to 0.

Now that I have done a full tanks' riding (and I mean a full tank to completely empty) and about 160 miles (16 litres - so 10 MPG.... oof!) I know to start looking for a petrol station at 130 miles or so... , but it would be nice to have the gauge working properly.

Paul

P.s. if I take the sender out, can I measure the resistance, just to make sure?

Good Morning Paul , it is still early , and Maths not my strong point , and I may have mis-read , but you talking Litres , and then go to MPG... 160 mies on 16 Litres , oof 10 MPG . [ 160 Miles on 16 Litres = 10 Miles / litre . 4.5 Litres in one Gallon , equats to about 45 MPG ] . If I have it all wrong , at least it will bring a smile to someone on this Wet Cold Morning . And I had the same sudden stop on the M42 , roadworks , no Hard Shoulder , = scary . No refuge to push the Bike to , luckily a Police Range Rover was in the vicinity , and blocked off Traffic until I fixed the problem .

McBoney wrote: Thanks Phil,

OK I will set to -100 and see what happens. The Kawasaki fuel senders all seem very similar, but will try to do some digging online.

This was the first time I had to tank again after filling up completely when I got the bike back with a working exhaust, and setting the odometer to 0.

Now that I have done a full tanks' riding (and I mean a full tank to completely empty) and about 160 miles (16 litres - so 10 MPG.... oof!) I know to start looking for a petrol station at 130 miles or so... , but it would be nice to have the gauge working properly.

Paul

P.s. if I take the sender out, can I measure the resistance, just to make sure?

10 miles /L = 45.4 miles/Imperial gallon which is right up there with Scotch's latest fuel mileage posting. ( I have it in the back of my mind that his last post was 43 miles/gallon.
The stock fuel tank is 27 liters and your Zephyr tank at 16 liters does put the squeeze on long distance travel. Good rule of thumb for sizing a fuel tank on a bike is 150 miles per tankful.

Hi Guys,

1 Gallon = 3.8 Liter and not 4.5
BUT, it is not relevant
If you do 160 miles on a full tank, it is what it is.
it will only affect the calculation of mile per gallon or Km per liter

Eran