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Ran out of gas a few miles out in the woods,switched to reserve and it would not start.I tried to choke it, ,pumped the throttle and kicked it till i couldnt kick no more.I usually get about 75-80 miles a tankfull but this time it dropped dead at 67.I learned to never trust that odometer and always check before that last ride.I almost perished from heat stroke pushing that joker back,only to have my wife chew me out cause i was gone for 2 hrs.All this and it was my birthday.Anyone have a solution?There was no sound of sloshing gas whatsoever when i rocked it back and forth.

Sounds like you ran out of gas.....

If you remove your petcock you'll probably find the problem. When the fuel lever is in the "on" position, gas leaves the tank through a tube coming up from the petcock. The tube should have no holes in it for about an inch and a half from the petcock. Naturally, this mean you can't get all the gas out of your tank with the lever in the "on" position. When you switch to reserve gas leaves the tank through a hole flush with the bottom of the tank and next to the "on" tube. I think actually the tubes are made from screen, the "on" tube just has no screen at the bottom part of it.

Be very carefull removing that petcock. There are two bolts that thread into captive nuts cast into the plastic into the bottom of the tank. If those captive nuts spin in the tank you will be in the market for a new tank.

Maybe a better plan would be to take a look in the tank with a flashlight? You should be able to see the tubes. It sounds like the "on" one has broken off flush with the petcock. 75-80 miles sounds like a lot for a tank of gas.

Carry a little spare gas in an army canteen?

Your gas tank could have junk in the bottom which clogged the reserve circuit but the on circuit was left unclogged. Take the petcock off and drain the tank. Blow on the petcock while it's on reserve to see if it's cloged (yummy ). If it is blow it out with compressed air.

The same thing happened to me pretty soon after I got my KDX200 - the longer tube coming out of the petcock feeding "ON" has fallen off (just an interference fit as far as I could tell) so moving the petcock to "RES" had no effect - the gas level was already at the bottom of the tank.

One other thing you'll want to look at is to clean out the carb - on mine I had all kinds of junk in there because the screens on the petcock tubes weren't stopping the junk from getting pulled in.

- Phil

Anyone have a solution?

Get a new wife?

Criminy! A little consideration would be indeed a little thing on her part. Yeah....an upset for the first few seconds...'til she found out the facts.

Going off 1/2 cocked about nothing of consequence OR about something made up out of whole cloth hasn't ever sat too well with me. Cripes..there are plenty of things I'm sure to work up an honest upset over. She would do well to save her breath for THOSE things.



If you mean a solution for your bike...that's been covered.

DID you in fact have no fuel? Good idea to verify that. You kneed to KNOW that you indeed ran out of fuel. If you did not, you need to find out how come you couldn't start the bike...else you're going to find yourself in the same situation...again even!

Re: 'I learned to never trust that odometer and always check before that last ride.'

Does that mean you were back at your rig during the 67 miles and did NOT refuel?

Don't ever do that. If you're at fuel..refuel. Only gone a 'few' miles and you have enough? Phooey. Be smart...be safe...fill it up every chance you get!!

Good luck!

js,
Your post got me thinking. I've never had my bike on reserve, and figured I better check it out to make sure it was functioning. I went for my usual loop and drained the gas tank. I had 2 quarts left in the regular tank, and almost exactly 3 quarts on reserve. The good news for me is that I should be able to make it to a gas station from nearly any point of the trails I ride with that much fuel left. When I head to the bigger trails I can carry an extra couple of quarts and be all set.

Joe

Sorry to revive a very old thread, but I also had a "no reserve" situation on my first full ride.

I have convinced myself that the petcock lever positioning is backwards from all the other dirtbikes I have owned/ridden. Before the KDX, the small end was the one I pointed to the setting desired (ON, Off, Rsv).

I swear my KDX demands the long part of the lever pointing to the desired setting. Am I nuts? Could the prior owner reinstalled the petcock plumbing backwards?

The first enduro I rode, I ran out of gas. The reserve function of the petcock was working fine, and it was not in the reserve position, but I was out of gas. Previously, whenever I needed to switch to reserve, road riding, I always had some left.

My theory is that with all that bouncing around off road, the gas in the tank sloshing around continued to feed the carb through the normal (higher) tube until there was none left.

After that, I always made sure I started out with a full tank, and filled up early.