1250fa self immolation....almost

Did the throttle body balance yesterday, it all went well, no problems, bike started and ran well in the garage. So decided to go for a ride from Epping to the Rocks near the harbour bridge. Got all the way there, pulled up to stop and the bikes engine stalls. "Bugger", I think I must have stuffed up the Idle speed control reset. So I try to restart the bike. Press the starter, engine splutters a bit for 2 seconds and stops. The ignition is still on at this stage. Then I feel my left thigh getting wet and cold and then the smell of fuel makes me look down at fuel squirting from the left hand side of the bike. "Great hairy shitholes"!!!!!! So I flick the kill switch off and turn off the ignition and jump off the bike and run away a good 30 meters or so. I've got enough fuel on me that if the bike went up while I was close to it I would go up as well. "Go on, burn you bastard! Try and kill me will you!" I,m yelling at the bike, but it doesn't take any notice and stays intact.
So my brain finally starts working again, post adrenal gland hyperfunction. I wonder if I pushed the upper and lower fuel line clips on hard enough when I put everything back together after the throttle body balance? If I didn't, why did it wait so long before it started to leak, the ride was about 20kms surley it would have leaked way before that. Hmmmm. Ok, walk back to the bike after 10 Minutes and get out the standard tool kit and lift the tank...and yep the lower fuel line clip is off. So I push it back on and it makes the satisfying "click" as it should. So I turn on the ignition and and the kill switch and nothing leaks and the bike starts normaly and I head home a little less confidant about the fuel line clips, because I was sure I pushed them on hard enough the day before.
Anybody else had this happen to them? Just beware. The amount of fuel that the fuel pump spits out is amazing and if the fuel had ignited I'm dam sure I would be either dead or close to it.
If this type of fuel leak ever happens to you get off the bike and run away as fast as you can. Also double check youre fuell line connectors before you put the tank back on the bike!

Bloody lucky Phill. Scary if it had come off while you were riding down the road, and ignited.

If you dont hear that click ,try again .

Been there, done that. Thankfully is was when I bumped started it down my street. This was on my GSX650FU.

Laaauuuuucky!!

not the same but similar,the gen2 is vacuum run,and on the peatcock valve it has a swivel base to the fuel line,and with the age of the bike,the swivel point has became loose, which in turn aloud the fuel line to move,and rub on the engine,and ware a hole in the line,allowing fuel to piss all over the motor, This happened on a road trip,and lucky I had tools to take off the tank and cut the line to remove the hole. It happened twice on that particular journey.
I got ride of the original peatcock valve and replaced it with a Pingle High Flow valve,which dumps more fuel and is total gravity feed. No issues with vacuum lines or electronics to worry about. One advantage with carbies

Ah yes that hissing sound as fuel hits the hot bits of your motor! Adrenalin is a wondrous thing!

Now I'm thinking about going to see Ghost Rider 2.

phill north wrote:Now I'm thinking about going to see Ghost Rider 2.

Could have stared in your own by the sounds of it

Yep. Done that. Got almost all the way to work. Bike started to splutter then stopped looked in the mirror to see a huge white plume of atomized fuel. Hit the kill switch and pulled over. I hadn't clicked the fuel line on properly and almost emptied the tank. The strange thing was. there was a cop right behind me and he didn't pull up after I showered his car in fuel. One dickhead flicking a cigarette out the window and it would have been a mess.

phill north wrote:Now I'm thinking about going to see Ghost Rider 2.

You could have been the star in Part 3.