Check and Double Check just to be sure.

TallTom

Registered
Here is a word of caution or whatever you like to call it.

I did a search to see if anyone else had seen this. No results came up.

Today while riding home I was 2 blocks from the house. I felt my rear wheel lose traction briefly. I thought that was odd I must have hit a patch of oil. Didn't give it 2nd thought until the next curve. She slid again on the back. My g/f who was riding her bike behind me comes racing up and says "You have fuel pouring out of your bike!" I said "OK I'm gonna limp it home" thinking she was seeing maybe a drop or something. So a block more of losing traction and I pulled up in my driveway and shut it off. Look behind me and its a trail of a steady stream of fuel behind me. As in pouring. As soon as I shut it off the pouring stopped.

I'm like WTH. I propped my tank up to start looking. I found the main fuel line had come off the tank! I had the tank off about maybe 6 months ago. Have had it off probably 3 times before at various times. I always am pretty thorough in my maintenance and I would be the type to feel that "click in" and pull to make sure it was on. I will assume it was never on all the way. Somehow it got passed me. How it made it 6 months and 1K miles I will never know. I could have had it happen in the middle of nowhere and yes the toolkit would have allowed me to find it on the road and make a repair. It is more the notion that had I not had someone behind me, I cold have been going down the interstate and never knew I was pouring fuel out onto the header pipes etc. until it got a LOT worse.

I was also having a hot re-start slow to start issue I had noted in my head to check into next time I was tuning etc. After I re-installed this line I rode for the rest of the day with no issues, including a the hot re-start issue. She fires right up on a hot re-start again like normal. I had also noticed my fuel mileage seemed low. This could all be related. But man what a way to discover it!

So check and double-check this guys and girls. I will be checking my g/f's bike tomorrow, just in case there is a fuel line self disconnect issue that has developed. First I see of this so I am not screaming the sky is falling. I am my own mechanic. I will own that it must have gotten past me. But do yourself a favor, and take extra time to make sure on yours.

Makes for a scary situation if you don't expect it.
 
wow.. glad you found it and you were not going too fast, it coluld have been alot worse..
 
im always afraid of my "can of parts" i seem to have after working on my bike.....so sometimes i take pics as i dissassemble things so i can "remember" how things went back together...
 
im always afraid of my "can of parts" i seem to have after working on my bike.....so sometimes i take pics as i dissassemble things so i can "remember" how things went back together...

I do this also. Been a big help in more than instance.

In this case it was the quick disconnect coupling that requires a tool too disassemble but it snaps back in place by hand on re-installation. It had to be connected as I have been running 1K + miles since I had my tank off. Amazed at how my bike kept running even though it was pouring out fuel. Says a little about the fuel pump doing a good job keeping the pressure up despite the loose connection.
 
The same thing happened to me about a year or so ago..that quick connect came apart while going down the road,and yes fuel is really slick..
After i left the stop light and speed up to about 35 the rear of the bike lost traction..i just thought the rear just lost some traction some how, but the road had nothing on it and the rpms was low..then the bike started to go sideways in a 2 lane busy street..so i applied the brake which made things worse and i never slowed down so i applied both brakes really easy..it was really hard to keep the bike up right and balance the bike..with cars honking behind me and to the right of me..finally the bike got straight enough to pull off the road..then i noticed fuel all over the back tire...thats one thing u need to check is the quick connect fittings when your under the tank..the bike was still running fine when i pulled off the road until i shut it off..
Sorry to thread jack but it may help an accident down the road..
 
The same thing happened to me about a year or so ago..that quick connect came apart while going down the road,and yes fuel is really slick..
After i left the stop light and speed up to about 35 the rear of the bike lost traction..i just thought the rear just lost some traction some how, but the road had nothing on it and the rpms was low..then the bike started to go sideways in a 2 lane busy street..so i applied the brake which made things worse and i never slowed down so i applied both brakes really easy..it was really hard to keep the bike up right and balance the bike..with cars honking behind me and to the right of me..finally the bike got straight enough to pull off the road..then i noticed fuel all over the back tire...thats one thing u need to check is the quick connect fittings when your under the tank..the bike was still running fine when i pulled off the road until i shut it off..
Sorry to thread jack but it may help an accident down the road..

Dude this is no threadjack at all! I posted this up to see if others have had this happen to them. Or to see if there may be a possible problem area of these things working themselves loose somehow. You had exactly the same thing happen to yours. Had you been working in there and had it disconnected at all for any tank removal?
 
I did have the tank up because i was seeing what size fuel lines i need to replace them..my friend showed me the quick connect on the fuel line and pulled it up and said i could take it apart ..but he never tried to remove it just pointed that out to me..i have a gen1 not a gen 2 with all the quick connectors i just have one on the return line..everytime i pop the tank up i make sure its together.. I really dont know how it came apart,since u have to push it in to remove it..unless it was not fully together in the first place..when u put the ends together a clip pops into place to secure the ends together ..i noticed after it came apart the first time down the road that sometimes it does fully clip back together but looks like it ok but it can still come apart when u pull on the ends unless. That clip is secure all the way..
I know your push style is a little different but kinda the same principle..
 
I have a Gen I as well. 03.

Had the bike since 1100 miles new. I am the only one that has been into the bike past the dealerships first oil change before I owned it. I have never seen any clips you refer to.

I bought my g/f the same bike for Xmas last year. No clips on hers either.

Are you saying that you added some sort of clip to hold then together?
 
I have a 2000 so things might be different or it was added.. Its on the fuel return line to the tank..

image-2769881656.jpg

image-2769881656.jpg
 
Wow. Mine look nothing like this. Mine uses the removal tool to depress tabs from the inside outward. Standard type from what I see on modern FI systems and A/C freon lines.
 
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