Fuel tank strangeness

[Anonymous]

According to Suzuki, the '81 GS750E has a 4.8 gallon tank with a .5 gallon reserve.

On my 750, when the gauge shows 3/4 down, it takes 2.5 gallons to bring it back to full. That gives a full quantity of only 3.3 gallons.

The gauge seems to be accurate; the bike stops running when the needle is fully into the red. Which brings me to my next question: when I ran it dry on Normal and switched over to Reserve, nothing happened. Same thing with Prime... no go.

What the...

[Anonymous]

Petcocks & fuel

If you have had a chance to remove a petcock assy. the "main" is a pick-up tube made of brass that projects some 1-1/2" above the very bottom of the tank,"reserve" is on the valve assy. itself at the bottom,and "prime" does not require vacuum to flow fuel.
I would guess that somebody has switched tanks and when it was time to put the petcock on, the small pick-up tube was broken off during the "assembly".
Rick..........

[Anonymous]

Considering some of the wacky stuff I've found done to the bike, a broken reserve tube wouldn't surprise me in the least. :roll:

[Anonymous]

C'mon, someone's gotta have an answer about the capacity problem...

[SqDancerLynn1]

Do you know if it is it the original tank?? Could it be a L model Tank

[Anonymous]

Lynn, I thought about that. The capacity is about right, but the shape is wrong. The L is more of a teardrop, with straight sides. The E flares out towards the front.

L tank

E tank

Hell, I may just strap a 5-gallon can to the luggage rack and run a siphon line up to the main. :twisted:

[redliner1973]

Is the tank actually empty of fuel when the engine dies? I had a Honda that had just enough crud blocking the petcock pipe screen to do exactly waht your describing. I had to shake the bike quite hard to hear the extra fuel that was in the tank. I would pull the petcock out and go from there. :twisted:

[HiSPL]

Yeah, theres NO way that 5 gallons of anything will fit into my 81 'E. The most I have put into it is 3.8 gallons and that was running pretty deep into reserve. I think Mr. Suzuki was smokin' crack when he wrote the manual for our bikes. And BTW the L model tanks won't fit the E model frames so theres no possibilty of that mistake.

[Anonymous]

Hmph. Well, I suppose I can cough up another $60 for a new petcock.

[Anonymous]

Total capacity is probably with the bike on the centre stand; hard to fill the tank right up on the sidestand with a big air space on the top right of the tank. Maybe that's where the factory gets their numbers from; the volume it's supposed to hold? :?

[Anonymous]

I have put over 4.5 gallons into my '81 GS750E tank. (I had emptied and removed the tank so it could be painted) Disregard the fuel guage. Mine goes from full to 1/4 in no time, and it takes 2.5 gal to refill (bike held vertical during filling).

I too suspect your petcock is not working properly. The filter screen might be clogged around the base. Since you need to empty the tank before you remove the petcock, experiment! Run it until you think its empty. Remove the tank and shake it to see if it really is empty. Remove the petcock and inspect. I paid about $45 for a new one on E-bay. Reinstall and fill with gas.

I guarantee you will put over four gallons into the tank. If I recall correctly, the GS750E had a 4.8 gal tank and the GS1100E had slightly more, even though they look identical.

[Mobetter]

hard to fill the tank right up on the sidestand with a big air space on the top right of the tank

You mean some people actually get off their motorcycles
and put it on the sidestands to fill up?

Mo

[Anonymous]

I tried to buy a new petcock for my 79 750L about a month ago and found out they are "no longer available" from Suzuki.