Filling the reserve tank - 1996 ZX6R

Right daft question time now so go easy on me please.....

Got the bike registered and took it for a little blast around the scheme, well a 30k blast lol, and the damn thing ran out of petrol.

Now before i went for the run i stopped at the filling station and brimmed the tank with the fuel cock at the "on" setting. So when it ran out i thought that as i had it at the "on" setting that there was some other problem. I moved it to the "rsv" setting and it started up into life almost immediatly. Now my understanding is that when you flick to the reserve tank you get approx 30k's to get to a garage, correct me if i'm wrong. Now i'm thinking that the fuel cock is reversed somehow and the "RES" is actually my full tank and not the reserve.

Now this is my first bike with this so i've no idea what i've to do lol.

I've attached a pic of the setting as it is now and it's running fine and got me home with no problems. As a side note when i turn the fuel cock settings they all match up and will go no further at the ON and RES marks.

Get a phillips head driver, unscrew the plastic cap off, it "should" only fit one way which makes it hard for even a mechanically inept bloke myself to fuck it up, that being said, perhaps previous owner jammed it on backwards somehow. No idea what fuel economy is like on a 6 but I would think it's considerably more than 30k a tank

as far as my understanding of this tank is, there is no reserve tank per say.
its all one big tank, and its set to suck air at around 4l, then when you turn the switch, it starts sucking from a part of the tank lower to the bottom, hence letting you suck out the last 4l.
Edit. Just out of curiosity, did you open the fuel cap and have a look to see how much fuel was in there? After 30k if you are hitting reserve there is something very wrong with the bike or you have a fuel leak

Last edited by MrWasabi on Mon Sep 14, 2009 6:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

There is no separate reserve tank it's all just the one.
From what you are saying I think your tank and tap are full of goobies and will need removing and
cleaning out.
Turning the tap just loosened it all up.
Drain the tank through a filter of some sort if you wanna save the fuel

sounds to me like your "on" pickup hose is blocked and your reserve one isnt, thats why it runs on reserve and not "on"

Thanks for the tips guy's.

Looks like i have a little bit of investigating to do tomorrow.

***EDIT***

Checked the fuel tank and there seems to be plenty of fuel in it.

Will get the tank off tomorrow and check for gunk in the lines and tap.

The bike has been sat for a couple of months with little running. Probably the last time it was run was about a month ago.

Is there anything i can use to clean th gunk up if i find any???

Sorry guy's dumb questions i know but if you don't ask you never learn.

There are threads regarding cleaning out tanks.
Do a search (I'm to lazy)

as far as my understanding of this tank is, there is no reserve tank per say.
its all one big tank, and its set to suck air at around 4l, then when you turn the switch, it starts sucking from a part of the tank lower to the bottom, hence letting you suck out the last 4l.

What you described is basically 90% of motorbike fuel tanks I suggest Definitely something not right if you need to hit reserve at 30km, investigate for sure, maybe a tank of some petrol cleaner shit you can buy at Supercheap or similar is worth a crack but eventually, like my brakes, I reckon you're going to need to pull it apart and clean it that way.

Check which line from the underside of the tank goes to which pipe on the fuel cock.
Left tank to front pipe on fuel cock

Not sure if this will help out other than making me look like (more) of a dickhead but... on my bike (96 ZX6R) when looking at the fuel cock (as you call it, never knew thats what it was called) when in the 'on position'(down) it then turns clockwise to the 'reserve'(top) and only turns anti-clockwise when going from reserve - on... fuel economy should see you around the 270-300 before reserve....
just my 2cents, not sure if it helps...

Inside the tank are two inlets to the fuel tap, one higher than the other. When the tap is in the ON position, the fuel flows into the taller inlet tube. Once fuel levels drop to below this, it sucks air. Then you switch to reserve and the fuel flows from the shorter inlet tube.

It sounds like you have a kinked fuel hose, from the tap to the carbs. Most likely if you have had it apart that it wasn't routed/seated properly when refitted and it's restricting fuel flow, perhaps only at revs. Remove the tank and realign the hose so it doesn't kink and restrict flow once the tank is lowered!

Do any of you drunks look at original post dates

Yeah was just over 2 weeks ago, and your point is??

16 days + 9 days = 25 day's ago
3 day's short of four week's OLD man

16 days + 9 days = 25 day's ago
3 day's short of four week's OLD man

does that mean he has fixed the problem?....
maybe he hasn't had time or found the problem as yet!