ok my bike starting craping out mo me this morning, figure it was the carb. got home and took it off and sure enough there was some brown stuff in it. i cleaned it out and put it back on, also flushed the tank. everything is back good again. now i rebuilt the carb about 6,000 miles ago, the accelerator was bad, but i did it all at the time. question is, how does the stuff get past the filter in the tank, i replaced the petcock about 4 or 5 thousand miles ago and the screen on it looks to be as fine as the screen you get on one of those inline clear filters. also found out that i could of just popped the bowl off with the carb still on the bike instead of going through the whole deal of taking my horn and gas tank off. anyway how does that stuff get past the filter.

 

Are you buying your gas from the same place every time if so don't , can you get a in line filter put on good luck

 

Actually, the filter/screen (assuming it's not torn) is as fine as can be used with a gravity system. Only way an inline will help would be if it had a sediment bowl but...

What you may be getting (sounds like) is what I call "snuff rust." It's a powder so fine it will quickly clog a paper filter, but it's too fine to catch any other way, and it mixes with gas so well, it's almost like dye and even a paper filter will let enough thru over time to cause problems.

I don't like to tell people what to do when it involves a good bit of labor and I'm sorta guessing at the same time, but you may be best served by removing the tanks and use Kreem or some other quality fuel tank coating to seal the metal on the inside...

PS - good advice in the previous post also. Possible the problem is originating at the pump... and never buy fuel when you see a bulk tanker unloading at a station. That's when everything in storage getsa stired up...

 

The "snuff rust" taht t150vej talks about in the above post has always been a problem, not only in bikes , but other vehicles as well. What we found is once they started putting alcohol in the gas the problems got a little worse. Alcohol acts like a sponge when it comes to water. It makes the gas absorb more water than normal. This causes more surface rust on the inside of the tank, making more "snuff rust". The good thing is that it is so fine that it doesn't usually clog up any passages. However it can settle into the accelerator pump and screw things up there. If you decide to coat the inside of your tank do yourself a favor and take it to a professional that has lots of good references. Improperly done you will have a headache the size of Alaska. If the stuff softens up and gets inside of your carb it will re-harden and dynamite wont get it out. Hope this helps

 

makes sense about it being fine enough to get past the filter. the tanks really aren't in bad shape so ill leave them alone. nice thing about the S&S Super E is that the bowl can be dropped and everything cleaned out without removing the carb from the manifold. took it for a nice 100 mile run tonight and it purrs like a kitten. come to think of it the last two times i got gas i bought it from a diffrent place than i usually do, so i think ill go back to my original place. what the hell, sh*t happens. its fixed now and im happy.