Well being a newbie I thought I would ask you guys for any info. I was coming home last night on the interestate and she quite running. So I coasted as far as I could. When I stopped I tried to fire her up again. She acted like she was running out of fuel but I could see some in the tank. I was able to get it started and nurse her to the gas station where I filled up. It only took 3.7 gallons or so, book says 4.2 capacity. After I filled up she fired right up and ran well like usual except for the surging it has when in 6th cruising at 80 mph. Anyways, my question is, do you guys think it was starving for fuel? It almost seemed at first like it was loaded up butno smoke.Thanks, Vince

 

Mine did that to me ON my way to gas the other day. Knew I needed gas though, was only taking it out for that reason (rain -_-) It took about 3.8 I think.

Repair manual says should be 4.5 US Gallons in the main tank and 0.8 US Gal for reserve.

 

I Think it's ur R/R. Mine was acting like it was ut of fuel before my R/R went out.

 

I'm assuming yours stopped after you fueled up? It was strange. I swapped it over to the reserve and it didn't want to start. Put it back over to the main tank, it started up and ran like nothing happened for about 1/4 mile and then it did it again. Pulled over started it up and nursed it to the gas station.

R/R??I'm trying to figure that one out.

 

means regulator/rectifier, its the black metal thing under the right side of your seat.

Mine didnt want to start up either, then I realized I had the fuel off instead of reserve (the difference 90 degrees makes, lol) It started right up after that and I got it to the station. No more problems. Dunno why yours did that

 

Regulator/Rectifier uh, I'll have to take a look at it tonight. What's the damage on something like that? What exactly does it do? I'm going to check the air filter and make sure the caps on the carbs are in good shape.

 

Well, when mine went (second day I had the bike) I was in town and this guy in a tractor trailer pulled up beside me and yelled out "hey there's smoke coming out from your seat" I pulled off and couldn't figure out what went wrong until this passer by with a little knowledge in bikes said it looked like a relay fried (I had the fairing off, gotta love F3 side fairings). That's when I noticed the "black box" had a melted line right across it. Got home and looked in the repair manual, discovered it was the (technical term) Voltage Regulator/Rectifier. Basically (as far as I understand) the r/r governs how much voltage it sent where in your engine. Be it to the alternator, lights, etc.

Mine luckily only fried itself, apparently it can fry a GOOD bit of electrical wires when it goes sometimes. Other than the blatant visible damage mine took, I don't know of any way to 100% tell if it's going to go bad being that it's completely closed off. Depending on what kind you have on there, it should look similar to this http://www.regulatorrectifier.com/ca...es/TRR6330.jpg just most of the stock ones dont have the heat sync (metal ridges for more surface area to disperse heat if you didnt already know that) on them, rather it's just a flat black surface (the heat sync is the metal backing which disperses the heat to the metal plate it is attached to). Maybe there is some kind of tool that can tell whether the r/r is good, idk.

My bike acted tricky when I got it and before the new regulator. Any time I pulled on the throttle I had to ease it at first because too much would kill the engine, so it would drop to about 700 rpm for a second then shoot up to like 3k. Also I had to crank the throttle any time I wanted to start the bike. I did a lot in the week I was waiting on the new r/r (ebay, pacific powersports is one of the stores that had one, $75, been working good for 300 miles so far) including fix the idle screw, so I don't know if it was acting up because of the idle screw being God knows how off, or because of the r/r.

(side note, this post was way too long)

 

when your R/R dies just turn the idle up for about 2500 and you'll make it home fine....

 

Just for some clarification, the 4.5 gallons includes the .8 gallon reserve. Take .8 away from the 4.5 and you get the 3.7 of usable fuel before you have to switch to reserve. I've run my tank dry while on reserve. She died right at the pump . It was all I could do to squeeze in 4.42 gallons. Maybe the 4.5 gallons includes filling the carburetor float bowls too .

 

Another thing....do NOT run your tank dry if you don't have to, there are horror stories are carbs getting f'ed up from the sediment in the bottom of the tank getting sucked in when ran dry.