No reserve on tank

[dunk400z]

Thought I'd give my bike a good run out during the week and put a couple of hundred miles on the clock however coming back on the A24 it ran out of petrol. No problem I thought and switched to reserve and ran for about another half a mile and then conked out. Had to push it 2 miles mostly up hill to petrol station and I was absolutely knackered! So I can only think I've messed up cleaning out my tank with that gold seal stuff and messed up something inside in the process of cleaning it out - used a chain and a few nuts inside the tank to knock the rust off but is this really what's wrong. No other leaks that I'm aware of so how come the reserve tank only lasted half a mile - any help appreciated?

[Hadies]

Reserve pipe might be blocked up.

[dunk400z]

Ok I get that the reserve pipe might be blocked but there's only one hole in the tank and one tap so where exactly is the reserve pipe and blockage - is it in the tap itself? Never really thought about how it works but now would appreciate if someone would explain the principle thanks?

[Hadies]

I think there's 2 pipes. A longer one for the on position on the tap and a shorter pipe for the reserve.

[amorti]

I think there's 2 pipes. A longer one for the on position on the tap and a shorter pipe for the reserve.

It'd be easy to drain fuel from an inch above bottom, but the bottom pipe that really drains from the bottom of the tank could be blocked.

[dunk400z]

The thing is I don't remember seeing 2 pipes when I stuck the fuel tap back on! Only remember one fat pipe that fitted inside the gauze filter and pushed into the tank about an inch with a o-ring at the bottom - am I missing something here - like another pipe somewhere or a hole that's blocked in the tap itself?

[duncan]

There should be two pipes,one tall and the other short,on the fuel tap.The idea is that when the fuel level drops below the level of the top of the taller pipe,you switch to reserve and take fuel from the shorter pipe.Even if you are missing the shorter pipe then there is still the hole on the top of the tap that it sticks in to.Either this hole is blocked or else you have got the switch/lever on the side of the petrol tank that operates the fuel tap on the wrong way around so that you were on reserve the whole time and when you turned the switch/lever you just went back to the tall pipe which was of course already well above the level of any fuel.You now have two choices;you can either take the fuel tap off and investigate/take it to bits/replace it. or you can just make a mental note of at what mileage you ran out of petrol and make sure you refuel in future before reaching that mileage

[dunk400z]

Like the idea of fuel tap wrong way round but no such luck and really don't want to take the fuel tap off again! Decided to count the miles and also buy a 0.6L emergency aluminium fuel bottle and see if I can fit it in the space under the seat just behind the rear light - does anyone see a problem with this?