Friggin crappy fuel gauge!
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I'm just very happy I decided to get gas before jumping on the interstate. I had just left a Victory Dealership that had a damn awesome "Hammer 1600". (Was picking up a clutch cable for a friend) It is a very nice looking bike but the DX is great too. I just wish HD could figure out how to make a friggin gas gauge that works!
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119 Posts
I had mine fixed twice under warranty. Mine would read full one second, go over a bump and read empty the next. I heard it uses a sonar to read the fuel in the tank; probably to advanced for HD, they should have stuck with the float.
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1,072 Posts
Gone are the days when motorcycles didn't have a fuel gauge - you just twisted the petcock to reserve when it started to sputter and stopped at the next gas station.
The next best thing is to set your A tripmeter at each fill up and count miles - assuming of course you get pretty much the same gas mileage all the time.
The next best thing is to set your A tripmeter at each fill up and count miles - assuming of course you get pretty much the same gas mileage all the time.
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388 Posts
the petrol-gague, has been a big problem from day one? I have found it best, to re-set the mile-ometer,every time you fill-up with petrol. When I first got-mine, I was trying to work-out how far I could-go! I ran-out of petrol on the North Yorkshire Moors? its never happened since?..............its too big and heavy,to push?
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731 Posts
I was being sarcastic. I view my fuel gauge as nothing more than a broken compass. I rely on the fuel gauge as much as I rely on the HD dealerships to properly service my bike and stock parts.
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276 Posts
Mine seems to work quite well so far. But I have always set the trip when I fill up to so i look at it before anything anyway.
My bike's warranty was out when I purchased the bike few weeks ago. Nevertheless, the dealer (600 miles from my home and over the phone) said that (as described in several threads) the issue is not the gauge but the sonic-based sensor inside fueltank.
They said that although the cost for the unit is about 130 € (about $165) and there is no recalls on that (thank you Harley for switching the part numbers!), they'll buy it and ship to my home FOC if I'm able to do the assembly or buy the work at local authorized shop.
Two weeks passed and bingo! Package arrived with the strangest looking fuel sensor I've ever seen... With great enthusiasm and no service manual at hand I rushed to bike and started to change the unit. It seemed pretty simple, plug and play installation as there were no threads or boltholes. Little did I know that there was a effin' circlips holding it inside the fueltank.
After almost destroying the old unit with coule of big monkey wrenches I realized that the old sayings "when everything fails, grab a bigger hammer" and "real men don't read manuals" have proven somewhat wrong and forced myself to push the cave-man-frenzy aside and bringing back my civilized engineering self back in place. Ahem. Disassembly of the complete fueltank top including the fuelpump wiring and fuel lines was necessary.
After disassembling everything on top and removing the top, I was able to easily remove the circlip, faulty fuelsensor and replace the newer version that looked exactly the same.
After another about 30 minutes wrestling of getting the fueltank-top-plate-sealing-o-ring (at that moment I had far more descriptive and colorful phrases that I used) in place and everything sealed off I was able to hook back all the disconnected lines. Presto! Everything in place without any immident fuel leaks.
Test drive showed that everything should be okay. I'm gonna go for a 1500-mile rally during the next few days so I'll be able to verify whether the new sensor fixed the issue....
The moral of the story? Being trained and worked as mechanical engineer I'm quite familiar of the concepts called Design for Manufacturing and Design for Assembly. Fueltank design on v-rod is clearly lacking at least DfA part. Otherwise the bike is great and I love to drive it.
Keep the faith!
tigg3r from Finland
They said that although the cost for the unit is about 130 € (about $165) and there is no recalls on that (thank you Harley for switching the part numbers!), they'll buy it and ship to my home FOC if I'm able to do the assembly or buy the work at local authorized shop.
Two weeks passed and bingo! Package arrived with the strangest looking fuel sensor I've ever seen... With great enthusiasm and no service manual at hand I rushed to bike and started to change the unit. It seemed pretty simple, plug and play installation as there were no threads or boltholes. Little did I know that there was a effin' circlips holding it inside the fueltank.
After almost destroying the old unit with coule of big monkey wrenches I realized that the old sayings "when everything fails, grab a bigger hammer" and "real men don't read manuals" have proven somewhat wrong and forced myself to push the cave-man-frenzy aside and bringing back my civilized engineering self back in place. Ahem. Disassembly of the complete fueltank top including the fuelpump wiring and fuel lines was necessary.
After disassembling everything on top and removing the top, I was able to easily remove the circlip, faulty fuelsensor and replace the newer version that looked exactly the same.
After another about 30 minutes wrestling of getting the fueltank-top-plate-sealing-o-ring (at that moment I had far more descriptive and colorful phrases that I used) in place and everything sealed off I was able to hook back all the disconnected lines. Presto! Everything in place without any immident fuel leaks.
Test drive showed that everything should be okay. I'm gonna go for a 1500-mile rally during the next few days so I'll be able to verify whether the new sensor fixed the issue....
The moral of the story? Being trained and worked as mechanical engineer I'm quite familiar of the concepts called Design for Manufacturing and Design for Assembly. Fueltank design on v-rod is clearly lacking at least DfA part. Otherwise the bike is great and I love to drive it.
Keep the faith!
tigg3r from Finland
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601 Posts
replaced mine under warrenty about three years ago haven't had a problem yet... knock on wood...
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7 Posts
Just a matter of time and one day you'll see it happen. I have watched my fuel gauge go from 1/4 tank to full several times. Doesn't always happen but when it does it's usually around the 1/4 tank mark. Kind of a common problem with v-rod's. Not all have the same problem but something similar. There are other blogs on here that talk about this problem. Give it a search.
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