Fuel tank range

[Drumnagorrach]

Now that I have a working low fuel swtch,I would like to rid myself of the paranoia that having a small fuel tank brings.
My low fuel light came on today at 125 miles,top up was 10.22litres.the tank is suppoed tobe 15 litre cap that would suggest 4litresleft in reserve ,should give me 48 miles in reserve and a total tank range of 173 miles (all worked out on the pessemistic side)
Does this fit in with your experience of a m900 ie 2002 ?

[Mr Gazza]

This will an interesting thread....:thumbsup:

My light doesn't work, so I get the jitters at about the hundred mile mark...I think the senders are quite expensive? So a better idea of my range is going to come in handy.

I've never paid too much attention to the litres when filling up but it usually takes about a quid for every ten miles on the trip.

[Tosh]

How do you know if your light works? Never seen mine come on so just fill up every 100 miles or so. Suppose thats the beauty of living on a small island.

[Drumnagorrach]

Your right about the price,£130.
Some of the best roads,have very few petrol stations up here.Going south,I fill up at Huntly,next petrol is at Braimar about sixty miles south ,next at Perth .
Going north west isn't as bad around the coast ,but inland is dire.
So ,I need to get my **** together as they say.The old Guzzi had a 5 gal tank,made things a lot easier.

[StevieL]

Sounds about right, my light starts to flicker at about 120 miles then lights up solid at 130 not so far to travel as you though for a top up............... atb Steve

[JMH900sie]

Same here for me! Light comes on at 120ish

[Mr Gazza]

How do you know if your light works?

I've stripped it a couple of times for work and drained the tank...The last time, I took the trouble to switch the ignition on before filling up..and no light.!

Not going to be buying a new sender any time soon, but it has just occured to me that it's silly not to put some power up the tank connector and see if the bulb works!!

StevieL is lucky, there is petrol in his town. But it is quite scarce in North Norfolk, so a little planning doesn't go amiss.

[Dukedesmo]

On my M900, the low fuel light comes on around 100-110 miles.

I also have a Translogic dash with a 'countdown' facility where low fuel warnings start at 30 miles before 'empty'. Using a (clever) MPG calculation I had set it to 140 miles.

However maths must not be my strong subject as, on the way to the Lincs Lancaster day I ran out of fuel at 136 miles. :grump:

I was only a few miles from home and had thought 'it'll get me to the petrol station'. :o

To make matters worse I ran out at the bottom of a steep/deep valley where there was no mobile reception so I had to walk 1/2 mile through a cow field to get a signal so I could phone the Mrs to come out with some petrol... :dunce:

[Drumnagorrach]

I've stripped it a couple of times for work and drained the tank...The last time, I took the trouble to switch the ignition on before filling up..and no light.!

Not going to be buying a new sender any time soon, but it has just occured to me that it's silly not to put some power up the tank connector and see if the bulb works!!

StevieL is lucky, there is petrol in his town. But it is quite scarce in North Norfolk, so a little planning doesn't go amiss.

My dashboard lights all come on when the key is turned,my tacho and speedo both sweep fully over ,I suppose to prove everything works . My bike uses the Marrelli 5.9 ecu does yours ?

[Mr Gazza]

Well I though it was a 5.9, but I have been told it is not....It's year 2000

It is the non-immobiliser model with mechanical speedo and electronic tach.
TPS, engine and ambient temp sensors...that's it I think...Definatly no diagnostic sweep.

[Drumnagorrach]

Lucky you,the 5.9 runs absolutely crap at light throttle even after LOADS of time and money spent on set up, it does fly when it's opened up though.
Would be a bastard if the only thing wrong with your low fuel warning is the bulb !

[jerry]

5.9m can be made to work well at light and low throttle,, but it needs much more work than any dyno session can offer , the problem is that the bike transitions very fast between idle , then 1500 and 2500 rpm and that needs 5or 6 transition set points for the map ,, above 3000 rpm it only needs 3- transitions which a normal dyno session shows up easy the bikes run to lean at low revs as well which is biggest issue

Drumm If you send me a copy of your present map I may be able to send you a tweak which you can try

[Scott1]

Erm, since I had my FCR's and hi chomp pistons fitted, I'm lucky if I get 80 miles from a full tank on my M900, nothing leaking either! That's a stop start commute through London every day, it used to 110 before I had them fitted.

[crust]

Scott1, something sounds amiss there.

When I put FCRs on my M900 the fuel consumption was a lot better. Even caning it I get around 50mpg.

I'm not alone in finding that. Did you put 39 or 41s on?

Sorry for the thread hijack by the carbies.

[Mr Gazza]

Well it was too hot to do anything outside today, so I tested my low fuel level bulb.

It works....Damn it ...Must be the sender after all..

I recall Capo telling me that he had a sender apart once. He said it had loads of diodes and resistors in it....And I got to thinking, these things can be tested and identified.

You can see where this is going....I wondered if senders could be repaired for a fraction of the price of a new one?

Anyone ever managed to repair one?

I kind of fancy having a go. Anyone got a duff one I can butcher to find out?

Y' never know, if it's possible then I can see a nice little exchange system happening.

[Drumnagorrach]

Yes mate you can have the one I took out

[Drumnagorrach]

Jerry. My ecu was sent away as part of trying to establish if there was a fault causing the snatchyness ,along with changing crank position sensor and the inlet stubs both were iffy.
When the report came back from Avanti racing that it was fine, I was asked if I wanted the ducati performance prog loaded along with my request to lose the immobiliser,it didn't cost much extra so I got it done,but haven't a clue what the prog actually is.
Being in north east Scotland is a bit of a problem , the only option for setting up on a dyno is with a dyno jet chap, and I have been told that the original ecu is capable of far more set points than dyno jets offering so I haven't gone down that route .
The strange bit about my fueling seems to be that it runs rich at idle and can soot up the plug,as a result,because I don't have the facility to reprogram the ecu, I have the co2 set at 3% at idle by setting the tps at 105m/v at closed butterfly,it's a bit lean through out the range ,but not disastrously so and is very responsive ( I hoped that the performance program might give me enough fuel on bigger throttle openings ).
Do you know anywhere who could reset my ecu ,paying attention to the area you mention,with the ecu off the bike, it's a lot cheaper to post the ecu than the bike .
I had thought about riding the bike down to Luigi moto in Bristol to get them to set it up but up until recently I didn't know if the snatchyness was due to a fault or program and by the time I had changed suspect parts I had no pocket money left.
And still not 100% certain if it is the prog,I don't have a compression tester so relied on the findings of Motomechanica in Aderdeen who told me it was quite low at 105 psi,but they thought the performance of the bike indicated that there was nothing to bother about,but if it isn't pumping a lot of air at low revs,on a carb bike ,the fuel is reduced accordingly. On an injected bike the fuel isn't reduced by the lower airflow, could be the cause of the richness at idle ?

[Mr Gazza]

Thanks Drum....Will send you some postage..

[Drumnagorrach]

No need for that Garry.will get it in the post.

[Scott1]

Scott1, something sounds amiss there.

When I put FCRs on my M900 the fuel consumption was a lot better. Even caning it I get around 50mpg.

I'm not alone in finding that. Did you put 39 or 41s on?

Sorry for the thread hijack by the carbies.

Again very sorry for the hijack, I've got 39's on, runs very nicely so just thought the sheer oomph that it had was the carbs taking more from the tank, anything worth checking? Smells a bit of petrol sometimes but I can't see any evidence at all of anything leaking.

[crust]

Again very sorry for the hijack, I've got 39's on, runs very nicely so just thought the sheer oomph that it had was the carbs taking more from the tank, anything worth checking? Smells a bit of petrol sometimes but I can't see any evidence at all of anything leaking.

Ah. I'm running 41's, maybe that's the difference. Maybe worth looking at the plugs to see if it is running rich.

Have you chopped the top off the airbox lid? I'm running an ITG airfilter with a chopped lid.

[Scott1]

It's running so well I'm scared to fiddle but checking the plugs won't hurt. I've just got the two plastic induction pods on top of the air box removed, funnily enough my old 600 had an ITG filter and I was thinking of getting one when the current standard one has sucked in enough London City smog. Will update as having read through other forums, 39's shouldn't make fuelling worse and like you mentioned, should be better in a lot cases.

[Dirty]

I've heard that you get better MPG with FCRs as well, and surely 39s on a 900 would be even better than 41s in that respect?

[Mr Gazza]

Your old sender arrived today Drum...Thank you.

Loved the Winnie the Poo note paper..:mand:

Now to try and find a way in without too much damage!....Anyone had a tank sender to bits before??

[spacemonkey]

Hmmm my M900 does 135 til reserve light and the most I've done before wussing out was just over 170 til fillup.

[smudger64]

I've had 160 miles from my M600 and have never seen the fuel light working so am now assuming that its not ever going too! Any suggestions on how to test?
Thanks

[Dirty]

I've had 160 miles from my M600 and have never seen the fuel light working so am now assuming that its not ever going too! Any suggestions on how to test?
Thanks

Blimey you must live at the top of a very long hill!! :eyepopping::biggrin:

[Flip]

I've had 160 miles from my M600 and have never seen the fuel light working so am now assuming that its not ever going too! Any suggestions on how to test?
Thanks

Keep riding until the motor stops??? :biggrin:

[Wildfire]

Max I ever chanced was 167 on the M600, the light was on for about 8 miles too. but I had done mainly cruising motorway miles.

[Mr Gazza]

Okay...Since this thread was started by Drumnagorrach, his very well sorted out Monster has sadly been written off.
I bought the nearly new tank sender from him and it is now in my 2000 M900Sie.

Since fitting it I have stiil been relying on my trip reading to fill up and not really dared go beyond 100 miles.

However for the last 3 fill ups I have noted the MPG and it is 61.8, 66.8 and 63.2mpg which averages out to about 64mpg...Calculations told me I could go a bit further than 100 miles.

So with 5 litres in a can in a pannier I pushed off to see if the light would come on.

It did. At 160 miles dead.
I went another 10 miles and put 12.22 litres in.

I think I could be looking at close on 200 miles range.

Well pleased with that...:woot:

[Drumnagorrach]

Excellent bit of research,much better than relying on a trip meter. Now even if you have a hooning session,you know that the light will let you know when fuel is getting low.
The later level sensor is supposed to be more reliable than the earlier float type , at the price they bloody well should be.