My brother-in-Laws 86 softail ran out of gas and when he hit the reserve it wouldn't pick up the gas. I picked him up but I am wondering about his after market petcock. Pulled the fuel line and nothing...any Ideas?

 

are you sure he knows which position is which? when i first started riding i did some pretty dumb **** like that

 

Good that you were there to pick him up. I ran out on the way to Vegas once and had to pay the fine people from the Chevron station in Baker $110.00 for a gallon of their finest, I whine about it but they were not the ones who ran out of gas. Has nothing to do with the original post, other than running out of gas, but moral of story is never trust your gas gauge, or run out of gas.

 

I've noticed that it can be possible to put the petcock together wrong if you've had it apart for cleaning.

 

Just to let you know. My bother in law put 186,000 miles on his bike the firs 20 years. Still would like to hear your comments on this

 

Might pull petcock apart and see if it's got any trash on it stopping the gas flow.

 

186,000 miles and he runs out of gas....hmmmmmm. Honestly, it could happen to anyone.

I assume that you threw out the "just to let you know" comment so we'd not further question his knowledge of petcock switch positions, etc. If so, your point is irrelevant since he ran her dry. Just saying.

 

Operator error! By all means check the tank for built up muck inside the tank, which might limit flow when turning on reserve. If in doubt remove the tap, flush the tank and fit a new tap.