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Ran out of gas today

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  • Ran out of gas today

    I don't recall ever running out of gas, ever before. Wanted to get that out of the way.

    This particular Hawk is a new to me bike that I am almost finished restoring. Probably my 5th or 6th NT over the last 20 years. It was in sad shape when I got it. But she is running well now.

    So I was cruising back from a North Georgia ride with petcock in the "On" position. The bike started to stumble and I reached down and switched to "Reserve". First time doing that on that particular bike. To my sincere surprise, the power wasn't restored, and the bike rolled to a stop just with a Circle K gas station in sight. I pushed the wounded bird into the Autozone parking lot, as my buddy followed me on his FTR1200. Petckock being now in "Reserve" was confirmed, but bike wont start back up.

    Circle K was an uphill battle, and simply purchasing a small can of ethanol-free lawnmower gas from the parts store, which seemed like an easier solution than pushing the non-running Hawk uphill. Poured .5 liter in the tank, petcock left in "Reserve", and the bike won't start. Running out of ideas, I put the petcock back in "On" and it fired almost right up.

    Rode to the gas station, filled up the tank and put the petcock on "Reserve" setting before continuing my ride home. Again, the bike wont start in "Reserve" with .5 liter in the tank before. I suspect that somehow it is working backwards - "Reserve" is actually the "On" position. But how is that even possible? Honda OEM petcock, not an eBay cheapo.

  • #2
    Are you looking at the right end of the lever?
    Brian - Richland, WA
    1991 Hawk GT

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    • #3
      Originally Posted by bk94si
      Are you looking at the right end of the lever?
      The short end with an arrow, and the only end that can point to the horizontal "Off" position.

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      • #4
        The petcock is probably clogged. You said it was in sad shape so its extremely likely that your tank has loads of rust and debris inside.
        Try removing and cleaning the petcock, it should solve your issue.

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        • #5
          Would the petcock in the “Reserve” position still use the normal pickup as when it’s in the “On” setting? That would support the clogged theory then.

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          • #6
            The petcock has two ports into the fuel tank - the On position is connected via a very long copper tube and the reserve position is simply at the bottom attachment point to the tank. If there was sediment and junk that had built up over time, it would clog the bottom port without affecting the much longer top port. If you pull the petcock out, it will probably reveal the horrors of the bottom port but the screen that sits on the petcock inside the tank will most likely stay behind and disintegrate... (Ask me how I know this...)

            I ordered a cheap petcock from eBay it is not even close to what the stock one looks like - I cleaned up my stock one and put the screen that came with the new one onto the old petcock and called it good. Of course that was only AFTER I spent some time trying to fish the remnants of the old screen out of the tank. Think about trying to get a guitar pick out of an acoustic guitar but only orders of magnitude worse.

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            • #7
              Originally Posted by Forcerouge
              The petcock is probably clogged. You said it was in sad shape so its extremely likely that your tank has loads of rust and debris inside.
              Try removing and cleaning the petcock, it should solve your issue.
              This...

              The reserve will clog before the "on" because its lower.
              Don't spend money and buy, spend time and learn.

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