Modern Buddy

is it that the senders are bad or is it the floats are crappy?

i took an informal survey of 6 people i know with new stellas, and all of our gas gauges don't work.

eh?

Same goes for many modern scooters, they dont break as easy, but they do malfunction and misread alot of the time. here's been people with buddy's where it read accurate for a while, then 6 months later it says empty when you're half way down the tank.

i haven't realy investigated anything, but i bet it's because of the float. it bounces around, so it must be reading something.

The wiring in Stellas is pretty poor. The Indians building Stellas cannot seem to get the wiring down. Plasitc connectors in the headset look Like they use truck parts or something.

the fuel gauge issue doesn't appear to me to be wiring related.

it seems to be the sending unit itself that fails.

i'm on my second one and can't decide whether to order another before my warranty is up. it seems like a waste to order another when it will fail the same way.

i'm wondering if it has anything to do with how the fuel enters that tank and hits the float.

i wonder if that amount of force puts undue strain on the wiper that the float connects to.

i've experimented with filling the tank from different angles but it seems like any angle but straight in results in a lot of unnecessary splashing.

i'd love it if they developed a more reliable sending unit, but i'm not holding my breath.

mine is completely dead now, not even bouncing anymore.

It's actually got several points where it fails.

The 2 big ones are:
1) The float fills with gas - apparently these floats were made by crackerjacks and the chances of it failing due to the float leaking are high.

2) The switch that the float connects to fails - this can be tested by using a DMM.

When mine failed, it was the switch failing. Oddly enough I pulled the whole float assembly, cleaned it up, let it dry, then put it back in and it's worked since.

The third point of failure tends to be the wiring in the headset. Sometimes the plugs in there come loose. (My headline switch did this). And some of the wires get pinched in their run down to the gas float assembly.

I've read of people replacing the float assembly with something more accurate. I thought about doing this myself. Considering that the float is at "Full" before the tank is full... and at "E" before it reaches empty, and does not show the reserve at all... I thought maybe I could find one of those deep tank gauges and adapt it to the Stella.

One of the guys I know just put a sticker over the gauge in the dash cluster that says, "What gas gauge?"

chad wrote:is it that the senders are bad or is it the floats are crappy?

i took an informal survey of 6 people i know with new stellas, and all of our gas gauges don't work.

eh?

At least you have a petcock. I don't understand why more scooters don't come with them.

I have an 02 and my gas gauge is pretty accurate. I guess that's to make up for my head/tail light issue.

AMS,

What did you actually clean up?

When I pulled my last one, there was a small amount of fuel in the float, but nothing horrible.

What was interesting was feeling the difference in the travel of the new arm and my old. There was obviously something that had failed inside the switch.

Did you find a way to open the switch and clean the contacts?

I basically cleaned off the gas, blew out the switch contacts and such. tested with with a DMM, etc.

Nothing major. I think my issue was just that it needed to be loved and put back in.

I have been on "E" with my `08 Stella, for two days now. I like the idea that these things break, I do not know why but it appeals to me. But when things start sputtering, I know I need to switch to reserve and get to a station where I pray i have the 2 bucks to fill her up.

One idea is to pop open the gas top and look inside, I can see when it is getting low.

I always keep some cash in the glove box for when I need gas and am broke. I usually don't ride that low and when broke but you never know!