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Strong Smell of Gas While Riding

rlievenski4555

Member
Member
I filled the tank of my 09 C14 today and went for a ride. Strong gas fumes kept wafting into my helmet as I rode, so I turned around to bring her home. Upon further inspection, I noticed gas residue dripping down the oil glass side of the engine and saw a small drip puddle forming under the bike. I pulled the upper cowling and removed the tank bolts to get a better look. The culprit was a steadily drip of gas coming from the fuel gage sending unit under the tank. I was able to siphon gas down below the gage unit and cleaned up all that covered the engine and battery box. The scary thing is that the drips were covering the engine and making their way to the hot exhaust. If you smell gas while riding... better check to see if gas is dripping from under the tank.

Now I am hopeful that I can get the gasket soon and that the sending unit is not corroded and needing to be replaced!
 
WOW, glad you are OK and there was no fire.
Let us know what you find with photos please.
You can see in the first picture that I removed the tank and suspended above the bike with 550 cord so nothing was scratched. This is after I used a siphon pump to get as much gas as possible out of the tank. The next picture is a close-up of the fuel gage sending unit location with the (4) 6mm bolts that attach it to the tank. Gas was dripping from the bottom and running down from there.

The next 2 pictures shown the old gasket. You can see the corrosion build up around the circular edge of both sides that transferred from the tank and fuel gage sending unit. The rubber was pretty hard as well.

I had to drive an hour and a half each way to a dealer that had the part in stock (Kawasaki Part 11060-1952, Gasket, Fuel Gage). Counter price is $24 at the dealer, but I do not care at this point. I did not want to wait to have it shipped or run the risk of a back order as even though the gas was no longer dripping... the fumes were still strong. I made sure to disconnect the battery and tape the terminal just in case.

I used a small strip of scotch-brite to clean the corrosion from the tank and fuel gage sender. Both surfaces were sprayed down with carb cleaner to remove all grit and debris. I put a very thin coat of grease on both sides of the new gasket and torqued the bolts in a cross pattern to the 62 inch pounds noted in the technical manual.

While the tank was suspended, I used Simple Green on all surfaces that had gas residue. I let it sit for 5 minutes and rinsed with distilled water and blew dry with my battery leaf blower. I then mixed up some hot water, white vinegar, and baking soda. The solution was mopped onto all surfaces below the leak to sit for 5 minutes and go through the rinse and dry. This did the trick of removing and de-odorizing the bike so it does not reek of gas.

By the way... if the sending unit is beyond a good clean-up, a new one can be picked up for around $200 (Kawasaki Part 52005-0026, Fuel Gage). I am hopeful that the unit works as always when I button her up within the hour.
 

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Seems like it used to be common practice to put plastic caps on with a hose attached to keep fuel away from hot parts in case of leaks?
 
Seems like it used to be common practice to put plastic caps on with a hose attached to keep fuel away from hot parts in case of leaks?
There is a plastic tray of sorts under the tank that has routing for significant portions of the wiring harness. I suppose one could seal up the access openings and add an overflow drain hose to vector away from the engine and exhaust. My guess is that engineers looked at the design FEMA and concluded risks of leaks to be too low to require mitigation. My bike sat unused for 7-9 years, which is the likely cause of degraded rubber (fork seals, brake lines, fuel system).

I am sure that the alcohol in typical gas was a catalyst for the issue as well. I use recreational gas unless I am on a long ride and it is unavailable. I worked on fuel system components when garbage gas first came out. Everything had to change to toxic zinc-nickel plating since the fuel is extremely corrosive to just about anything else. As prior posts attest… I get roughly 2mpg more on pure gas. It also seems that the engine is more responsive… but could just be in my head.
 
I have ridden several miles this week and my new gasket did the trick. My suggestion is for owners of earlier models (maybe 2012 and prior) to take advantage of winter storage (if applicable) to remove the fuel gage sender to clean up the sealing surfaces and make sure the rubber gasket is in good shape. An ounce of prevention…
 
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