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To give you some back up.
I got a new blue gas can from the last race weekend. There was some fluid in it and figured it will mix well when I fill it up at the gas station...........................
I ran 1/2 the can at the track day in the 600 rr and the Hawk. At the end of the day I empty the remaining contents into the Hawk to finish out the week’s worth of commuting. Wednesday/ Thursday and the Friday morning commute no problem. As I head home on Friday I'm getting a little hesitation. I pull into Mobil and top off. As I pull onto the highway she begins to choke/sputter and just about dies. I limp off and pull into Auto Zone in Medford. I fart around with it for a little and everything seems to be running fine. I get back onto the highway and all is good.
I sit in traffic before the city and in thru the tunnel. As I come out of the tunnel and start going up the hill she is sputtering badly and I cannot let the clutch out or else she dies. I pull over take out the tool kit and drain the bowls on the side of the highway thinking something is messing with the carburetors.
I get back underway up the hill with no problems. A min later it starts acting up again. I know there is a Home Depot up ahead and can get a longer screwdriver and some rags to try to get the bowls drained out. I get the things and start draining the bowls into the rags. I have a Tygon fuel line that is yellow and somewhat transparent. I look into the line and see tiny 1/16" and smaller blobs of something floating. Hmmmm... What the hell is this????? After it sits for a min they all seem to combine together and I can definitely see the separation of gas and whatever the hell it is. I have 3 gallons of gas in the tank and need to get whatever it is out of the tank.
I venture over to the end of the parking lot and start looking for some tube and a container to start draining the tank. I find a McDonalds straw and a DD foam coffee cup. Let me tell you and I should have known this that gas likes to eat foam cups. Gas instantly ate right thru the bottom of the cup and onto the ground. OOPS.. I then go looking for a plastic cup and find a Large DD Coolata cup. I begin draining down the tank via the bowl as I could not find a tube to go from that tank into the cup. It is way too much of a hassle to pull the end off of the filter. So with the bike running I drop about 2.5 gallons of gas. I find that the gas is/was considerably cloudy and I can see some separation in the bottom of the cup. This explains why I had trouble when I was sitting around in traffic. The settlement would gather together in the bowl and then be sucked up as a whole of which the engine did not like. As I hold it up to the sun light it has a greenish tint to it. Mother Ferrrrrrrrrrrrrrr……………… Someone had drained coolant out of their bike at the track into the 5 gallon can that grabbed. I thought someone left some C12 in the can, I guess not. I continue to see signs as I can see white smoke coming out of the exhaust. Now let’s get rid of as much gas as I can.
Everything is just about all clear now. I button everything up and ride around the parking lots. It is still hesitating. As I think to myself "Self, if I fill up with gas will it go away? Probably not". So I'm cursing around thinking I need to find a service station so I can drop the remaining gas out of the tank. I first spot a tow station and a bunch of guys hanging around on some stairs. And ask them if they had some tubing and a can so I can drain out the contained gas. They looked at me like I had 5 heads and told me to go to Auto Zone. Useless Idiots. As I’m cursing around trying to burn up the gas I find a little shop and tell them what my problem is and what I need to do. I unbutton my Vanson jacket and he begins to tell me what he thinks he needs to do. I think the buttoned down collared shirt with tie means SUCKER in Boston. Yea, Like I don't have any mechanical knowledge about the Hawk. HA HA that is a good one. (Just don’t ask me about my coolant issues) I could rebuild a Hawk completely with my eyes shut. "Just get me hose and a gas can, I need to get the bad gas out." He complies and we get the tank drained as best as possible. I figured I had enough gas in the bowls to get me to the gas station up the street. I button everything up and make it to the station and top off and made it back home.
It was actual a fun experience. I never performed a road side repair and I had to find some means to drain the tank by using trash. Motorcycle Survivor.. I called the wife and let her know what was happening and that I was going to miss the movie and part of the movie and dinner with our friends. I so wanted to see the Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with their little one.
Lessoned learned never judge the book or gas can by its cover. What is funny is that I thought about smelling the can as I was picking it up but thought “Do I really need to take a whiff of C12”…..
If I had san FI bike, I think it would have ended up calling Kate to come pick me up as there would have been no way Icould have been able to drain the tank and or fuel rails. Man do I love carburetion…..
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Originally Posted by Pookie
