gas tank lever position

[pattorp]

Hi, Im brand new to this board. I have a 1999 Suzuki GZ250 which I bought recently. I am confused about the position of the gas reserve lever. Can anyone clarify for me what is open and what is closed. Its sort of wierd that its so confusing, but it is...

Thanks for your help.


Pat

[patrick_777]

This should answer your questions. There are a few good pictures of the petcock in the correct position hanging around the board. You'll have to do some searching.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2341&hilit=petcock

The thing to remember is the long end points TOWARD what you want.

[primal]

It's pretty easy once you think about it. You probably want to think that the beveled end points to the desired position (like an arrow). It's actually the other way around. How can you tell? Because no matter which position you turn it, you'll never get the beveled edge to point towards the prime position (or whatever the 6 o'clock position it, I can't remember).

[mrlmd1]

There is an arrow imprinted on the lever pointing to the direction you want it to go. Look at it. Run points towards the front of the bike.

[dannylightning]

Originally Posted by mrlmd1

There is an arrow imprinted on the lever pointing to the direction you want it to go. Look at it. Run points towards the front of the bike.

Edit (some one said this was confusing so i will word it a bit different)

i can not see the arrow on my petcock so i had to look this up my self, i read on another site that almost all bike use the short end of the petcock, than i found this site with the correct information. on the gz you use the long end of the petcock to point to the position you want.

only use prime if the bike has not been started for a while and as soon as you start the bike turn it back to the run position....

[primal]

Originally Posted by dannylightning

always keep mine on reserve so the gas in the reserve tank does not get stale..

You really don't know that there isn't a "reserve tank," do you? The main tank and the reserve tank ARE THE SAME TANK. The only difference is that the pipe for the normal position is higher than the reserve position. When you switch to reserve you're just getting the last bit of fuel from the bottom of the tank.



There is no good reason to run on reserve all the time, but there are plenty of bad ones (you know, like ACTUALLY running out of fuel -- the reserve is there for a reason, you know).

[dannylightning]

when i first got this bike i remember looking up petcock (gas lever) cus i was trying to find out what the prime setting was, had never seen that before and i found something about the reserve tank. it stated that it was it's own thank but was in the main gas tank and only held enough gas to get you a few miles to the gas station and next time you filled up it would just suck in gas and refill its self.. i thought i read it on this site but it may not have been. thanks for the info ill take it off reserve

when i see i have gone 100 miles i start looking for a gas station. so i probably wont run out of gas but you never know. with my car i do the same thing except at 150 miles i start looking for a gas station.

[primal]

There's still the fact that there's no point in keeping it on reserve. You're getting absolutely no benefit.

If I recall, the reserve on the GZ is about 0.9 gallons. That's an extra 60 miles that could save your ass.

[music man]

I actually ran out of gas for the first time on my bike about a month or so ago, because my tube has fallen off inside the tank and I ran all the gas out, what a surprise :shocked: when i switched to reserve and got nada, luckily I was only about 2 short blocks from a gas station :rawk: .

[Easy Rider]

Originally Posted by dannylightning

i can not see the arrow on my bike.. i read that almost all bike use the short end of the petcock and not the long end. than i found this sit and every one says on this bike you want the short side pointing to either your normal gas setting or the reserve setting. i always keep mine on reserve so the gas in the reserve tank does not get stale..

Could that be any more confusing ??

Like others have said, on this bike the LONG end of the lever points to the active position and, yes, that is the opposite of a lot of other bikes.
BUT
There is only ONE tank, with different taps above the petcock, so it is all the same gas.
It is a good idea to run for a few miles on RES every once in a while to get any water that has settled in the bottom of the tank but not all the time.
If you run on RES all the time, you will eventually be sorry when you run out and have to walk.

AND, lastly, there is no OFF position; the vacume control automatically turns the gas off in ON or RES positions.