I just bought a 98 zx9 and am confused on the fuel reserve. Its kinda tricky, either way i turn it could mean the reserve is on or off. Ive already ran out of gas twice ( once on the freeway this morning ) when i pulled over i turned the lever the opposite way and wheni tried to start it, it would not turn over. Tried about 5 times and decided to push it appx 1 mile to a gas station where i put gas and it started in 1 try, the weird thing is i shook the bike and heard gas in the tank. what should i do ?

 

There sould only be 3 postions on you fuel valve (on, off, and resreve) It sounds like you might have drained your taknk and still had the reserve to me. But I'm not sure if it might have been the other way. For the not starting thing you might have air bounded your furl pump. That's why it might have not started.

 

Check your shut off valve. Remove fuel line leading to the fuel pump from the valve. Drain fuel into gas can first in the on position and after it stops turn valve to the reserve side and see if fuel comes out. Then try to see if you can drain the entire tank with it just on reserve, if so remember where the on is and do not leave it in the reserve position.

Let us know what you find.

 

Sounds to me like he had been running it on reserve the whole time... which will refill as drained if the tank has gas in it. By doing so, he never actually had a "reserve".

 

that almost confused me...
srobak, was smoking a big one when he wrote that

 

Hehe, I had to read it a couple of times too.

It was explained to me like so... There are usually 3 positions, ON, OFF, and RESERVE.

OFF is obviously... well, off. No fuel flow to the engine.

Then there's ON and RES... There is no separate "Reserve" tank, just two different fuel pickup tubes inside your tank. One is higher than the other. The taller one is ON. When you drain your fuel below this pickup, no more fuel, engine stops. Switch to RES, and fuel will flow through the lower pickup until its empty. Now empty might not be 100% bone dry, just empty enough that there's not enough fuel to hit the 2nd pickup tube, or maybe you still had enough fuel, but never put the petcock in the right position long enough to get enough fuel to the engine.

So yeah, you probably had your petcock on RES, and drained your tank.

 

Not sure if the valve is the same on all bikes or not - but just maybe they are. When I am sitting on my bike if the leaver (valve, whatever you want to call it!) is pointing to the rear of the bike, fuel is off. If it is pointing down to the ground, fuel is on. It is pointing to the front of the bike, its on reserve. Hope this helps.