So, getting ready to take a trip, bought the bike knowing full well that the fuel lines (which looked pretty old) needed replacing. I did a bunch of research and between Snowbum's site and a number of other places (like ADV Rider I found the approach I was going to take.
First I went to Champion Motorcycles and picked up some fuel line. I could've gone one of three ways:
- Tygon line
- BMW cloth braided
- Steel braided
After my research, I decided on Tygon. I bought 3 feet of 1/4" Motion Pro Premium line in black from Champion (I wanted clear or yellow because it looked cooler but this was all they had. I then went to O'Reilly's and bought two Wix 33011 inline fuel filters. BTW, Champion wanted less than some of the places online (3' for $16)...
Now, I was freaked out... these Wix filters are 4 inches long... but 1 of those inches is part of the tube that feeds into the filter. After poking around a bit, someone said they cut the little part out and made the other hole just a little bigger. I don't know if making the other hole bigger is necessary, but I agreed with the trimming of the other bit and made it happen.
The wix filter, trimmed...
The filter was not 3 inches long and fit well up and down between the fuel tap (or petcock) and the t-piece that connects the two carbs.
Next, well... I was doing two things at once... so I decided to pull off the fuel tank. This is pretty easy, it just takes opening the seat, undoing two hand tightened nuts at the back of the tank, undoing the fuel lines from the fuel taps, lifting if off and placing it gently down someplace else. It really was that easy... I was surprised!
Here it is off
And here it is balanced precariously on the wheel of a quad
Now I started on my second job (putting in a 12 volt adapter on the handle bars). I bought an adapter from Cycle Gear for $10. It didn't appear to be fused, but this was okay because the wire was too short anyway. I dug through my stuff and pulled out a fuse, wire, heat shrink tubing, some zip ties and so on and when through the painful process of running the adapter along the top of the frame to the battery. In the end, I didn't even finish and just stuffed everything into the top tube of the bike to revisit later.
The new adapter blends in well...
Here is my crappy wiring job... not tucked away at this point.
So back to the fuel line... Pulling the line off of the taps was easy, the other places, not so much. I didn't have enough room to get some twisting, pulling, pushing in so I decided to pull off the air hose from the air box to the carb to get more space.
Here is my secret, learned the hard way, to pull off the air hose... loosen the clamps and then work the little rubber part off of the airbox... this will become super easy at this point, otherwise you'll be pulling, sweating and cussing. To put it back on, just do the opposite. The carb side is easy, just loosen the clamp.
With that out of the way, it was easy to pull everything else apart. My hoses were pretty old so they came off with fairly little effort.
To measure the hoses there was a bunch of lying stuff down on a piece of wood, holding things next to each other and getting relative sizes. I thought about taking pictures of it, but I didn't. With the fuel filter, it was a little holding things up, comparing, marking and then cutting. Eventually I came out with the same length hoses. All the hoses needed doing, even the one that goes through the airbox, so I pulled this one out too and replaced it. To replace that connecting hose, I used a tip from someone else and uses a metal coat hanger to use as a guide. I fed the hanger through the box and then the fuel line onto the hanger... really, really easy...
Now I just hooked everything back up... pretty easy... hoses slipped on w/o much effort and didn't require clips, clamps or ties. The R80 uses gravity and has low pressure so everything was good to go (I do have some zip ties under my seat just in case).
So, two more things... 1. I just put the filter on one side... this is mainly because I'm only running one open, not both and 2. I don't trust my work yet... So I'm going to chuck my extra filter in my bag and push on. If I feel comfortable with what I did, I will put the other filter on the other side.
So everything was good, I put everything back together and put the tank on. The first time I slid the tank on I didn't slide it on correctly up front (see picture below). I knew immediately because it was loose. I pulled it back, readjusted and everything fit perfect.
So, I tightened it up, took one last look and turned the tap to AUF. The fuel filter slowly started filling with gas and everything looked great - that is until I saw the puddle splashing down on the other side of the bike. Remember, when you put the tank back on, attach both hoses to it...
I let the gas dry up a bit while I did other things and then came back, started it up and looked for more leaks - nothing. I went inside, put my gear on and took it around the block a couple of times, appeared to be a solid job (patting myself on the back).
Now back to my first statements... since buy thing bike I found a couple of things.
- On Friday, Peter found the drive shaft gaiter was cracked
- Today I found an oil leak at the gear change lever
- Today I also found a little old looking leak from the head of the steering column
- Also today, my light switch is toast, no longer sitting in the on position, it slides off. High-beams work so I can just drive during the day and not be out at night for the time being.
Well... that was today's adventure.. (along with cutting straps to double the security of the side bags and slapping some stickers on the back case).
I took Brigitte on the 405, 55, 5, 57 and 91 freeways today also... wheeee!
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