Fuel Filter Drama is Over

E Zurcher

Registered
Finally replaced the fuel filter on my 09. Out of curiosity I decided to dremel off the top and see why it clogged so easily. the new filter medium is actually your standard manila envelope colored paper filter material although it is very tight weave and encased in a metal holder. The fuel actually enters the chamber and flows through the pleats to the black plastic portion then out to the supply rail. I don't know what kind of gas caused this but you can see the filter medium is actually blackened. I was surprised to see how little there actually is, only about three cigarettes width and depth of pleated material. My bike has around 26000 miles on it and that is not much to filter all that gas. Gave it a quick shot of carb cleaner and even that wouldn't clean it off so the back flushing method may work for sandy grit type clogging but not what I had.

BTW, she runs like new now:laugh:

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Filter was $ 250.00 through Honda East. In the pictures above I had already removed the fuel pressure regulator. Interestingly this filter had about two cans of Seafoam through it along with a couple of bottles of Techron over the last year. It didn't do much at all. When I backflushed it with gas, My bike would perform okay but only for a couple hundred miles. Looking inside the tank, everything is pristine.
 
Yah. Wasn't our planned stop but that one was closed. We were getting low and had to stop at this cheesy station in northern South Park County, CO. My buddy and I filled up, he has a Gen one so he used regular, Mine is a Gen 2 so I use premium. There was a guy standing there and we had a short bike conversation with him, then went in to pay. When we got to Evergreen, I noticed my fuel pump was whining but no noticeable loss of power. By buddy noticed his digital camera was missing from his tank bag. It was an expensive stop all around for both of us for sure! Power slowly dropped off through the rest of the Summer until she would not go over 7000 RPM at WOT. I think I heard Cartman laughing!! Where's the Coon when you need him!

Judging by the small surface area of the filter, I would suggest replacment every 25K. Not sure if the manual specifies.
 
Wouldnt it be nice to filter the fuel as you fill your tank and $250.00 is way to expensive. Maybe someone should make an aftermarket filter.
 
Part of the reason I took it apart was to see how it's built and possibly reverse engineer it. All of the parts are custom. You may be able to remove the filter altogether and then use an external filter. My guess is the fuel pressure regulator might not work properly in that configuration. You would also need to reweld the two parts together well enough to withstand the pressure. Probably better just to buy a new one.
 
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