Fuel tank blocked

Chuffy · Post by **Chuffy** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 4:57 pm

I have been tracing back a problem I have been having with my Buddy 125 losing power, stalling intermittently, and soemtimes having trouble starting. I thought it was the carburetor but turns out it is whistle clean and not the problem. Started going up the fuel line to see if it was maybe the filter but when I disconmnected the line from the tank to the top of the filter nothing came out!. Squeezing up and down the tube I was able to get a little trickle. I thought I had my culprit and took of the entire hose from the fuel tank but lo and behold when I did nothing came out of the tank! I have about 2/3 of a tank in there and cannot see down into the tank to see if there is any blockage. Again I am not very mechanically inclined. Does anyione have any suggestions on how to fix?

charlie55 · Post by **charlie55** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 6:40 pm

Could be gummed-up fuel. Has the gas been sitting in the tank for an extended period of time without having added a stabilizer?

I'm not familiar with the Buddy's fuel tank. Is it plastic or metal? If metal, you could also have some loose rust knocking around in there.

HowHH · Post by **HowHH** » Sat Aug 23, 2014 9:59 pm

If the the auto fuel valve is still attached to the bottom of the tank then fuel will not drain out of the tank. The valve is vacuum actuated. The vacuum hose is the bottommost hose on the valve. Apply partial vacuum to that hose and fuel should flow out of the fuel line. If not the valve may be bad.

I've had it where the valve failed whereby it did not close, but not the other way round.

if the valve does properly open, you may want to check that there are no leaks in the vacuum hose.

Benzo Mike · Post by **Benzo Mike** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:00 am

Common issue on Suzuki 1200 Bandit, and you have classic symptoms. A buddy of mine on ADVRider is suffering with this right now on a cross-country ride. Quite possibly fuel valve issue, either bad vacuum hose connection to the valve or a bad diaphragm in the valve. Cure? New hose, or new diaphragm, or new valve assembly, or best solution, a Pingel manual fuel valve. I have no idea if there is a direct drop-in Pingel , anything can be adapted with some work. They are awesome.

Dooglas · Post by **Dooglas** » Wed Aug 27, 2014 4:09 pm

HowHH wrote:If the the auto fuel valve is still attached to the bottom of the tank then fuel will not drain out of the tank. The valve is vacuum actuated. The vacuum hose is the bottommost hose on the valve. Apply partial vacuum to that hose and fuel should flow out of the fuel line. If not the valve may be bad.

Good guidance. Try this next. I'm guessing you will find that this is not your problem.