Dake
Junior Member
Hi guys, long time lurker here. The original owner of my 2006 FZ6 let it sit between 2008 and 2010. I bought it in February from the second owner who didn't ride it much. I did some maintenance and was riding happily (for over 3000 miles, to a total of 11,5xx) until about a week ago when I (ignorantly ) ran the tank pretty low. It has since started bogging down under load. I've read a lot about the TPS sensor and I ruled that out first, since the bike will ride fine as long as I'm gentle on it. I ran part of a batch of cleaner through the fuel system. While it was in the garage I replaced the spark plugs and cleaned the air filter, under suspicion that the previous guys never had. Long story short, it's still acting up.
The previous owner said someone broke into the tank once, and he told me that he replaced the gas cap and flushed the tank... well, he must have fibbed about that last part. Last night I drained the tank and removed the fuel pump assembly to check for excess buildup, and to my surprise there were metal parts inside the tank, which I determined to be a latch and spring for a gas cap (a lot shinier than my current ones!). I suspect those could have chipped the tank lining, and the pump assembly was filthy. A healthy amount of grime came out of the tank with the last bit of gas. The arm holding the float is extremely rusted and flaky. The stealership predictably told me that the fuel pump assembly is non-serviceable and non-cleanable, and that I should buy a very expensive replacement unit from them. I've seen MotoMartin's thread about the FZ6R pump working on 05-08s, and I'll give that a shot if there's no way to clean mine (free < $120+).
tldr: Is the fuel pump assembly a cleanable unit, and if so, how? Since I already have it out, will I need some kind of sealant to reinstall it, or will it make a fuel-tight seal on its own? Do you think loose metal parts in the tank will have caused damage to anything? Above all, might fixing these things fix the bogging issue? Any help is appreciated, I wanna get back to riding asap :thumbup:
edit: Note that since this problem started, the furthest it has traveled is 1/8 of a mile, up the street and back.
The previous owner said someone broke into the tank once, and he told me that he replaced the gas cap and flushed the tank... well, he must have fibbed about that last part. Last night I drained the tank and removed the fuel pump assembly to check for excess buildup, and to my surprise there were metal parts inside the tank, which I determined to be a latch and spring for a gas cap (a lot shinier than my current ones!). I suspect those could have chipped the tank lining, and the pump assembly was filthy. A healthy amount of grime came out of the tank with the last bit of gas. The arm holding the float is extremely rusted and flaky. The stealership predictably told me that the fuel pump assembly is non-serviceable and non-cleanable, and that I should buy a very expensive replacement unit from them. I've seen MotoMartin's thread about the FZ6R pump working on 05-08s, and I'll give that a shot if there's no way to clean mine (free < $120+).
tldr: Is the fuel pump assembly a cleanable unit, and if so, how? Since I already have it out, will I need some kind of sealant to reinstall it, or will it make a fuel-tight seal on its own? Do you think loose metal parts in the tank will have caused damage to anything? Above all, might fixing these things fix the bogging issue? Any help is appreciated, I wanna get back to riding asap :thumbup:
edit: Note that since this problem started, the furthest it has traveled is 1/8 of a mile, up the street and back.
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