[knoticalone]

Please excuse if already answered somewhere else. I did a search and did not find the same issue as I am having. The fuel gauge on the Lt takes at least 20 minutes to clime to full. It eventually gets there but takes a long time. Even when the bike sat overnight, when I started it this morning it was still slowly creeping up for a while. Took the trip computer another 30 minutes to adjust. Went up by about 1 mile every 20 or 30 seconds. I read about the bent sender units, is this also a symptom of that?

 

[AlaskaFish]

Yes. There are posts on the site here about how to straighten the tube for the sending unit, but you need to make sure that you do not have a clogged cannister which could have caused the fuel tank to collapse around the sending unit thus possibly causing the bent tube.

If you search here for "cannisterectomy" you will find tons of info. It really is an easy surgery on the fat lady!

John

Please excuse if already answered somewhere else. I did a search and did not find the same issue as I am having. The fuel gauge on the Lt takes at least 20 minutes to clime to full. It eventually gets there but takes a long time. Even when the bike sat overnight, when I started it this morning it was still slowly creeping up for a while. Took the trip computer another 30 minutes to adjust. Went up by about 1 mile every 20 or 30 seconds. I read about the bent sender units, is this also a symptom of that?

 

[knoticalone]

I read all of those already but the symptoms seam different from what I am experiencing. When I read those the fuel gauge was either not functioning at all or only read half or quarter when full. mine reads full it just takes a long time to get there. I had all the tupperware off yesterday. Tank appeared normal. Nothing seemed unusual either when I filled it up yesterday, but this is the first time I have put fuel in it since I purchased a few days ago.

 

[hschisler]

I think a slow-responding fuel gauge COULD be caused by the same issue we are discussing here. It's possible the damage to your sending tube is slight, not major. A smaller dent in the sending tube might cause this, as it could interfere with the float rising to the top of the tube. And, the tank can look perfectly normal but if the damage is to the tube you won't see it until you remove it.

Remove the sending tube from the tank and check it for damage. Be sure to do this when the tank is half-full or less; otherwise a lot of gas will run out of the tank where the tube was installed. This is because the tube sits at a lower level in the tank than the fill cap.

There may be other reasons why it's responding slowly. You'll be hearing from others shortly.

 

[jzeiler]

Since this was your first fill up, give it a chance and watch it over the next few fill ups. Mine has been slow on a couple of them and perfectly normal for the majority. This seems to only occur on the 05 and up bikes and is not related to tube damage. May have something to due with the "read" interval on the newer bikes as it is not an "instant" read on these to feed the digital dash.

 

[knoticalone]

Thanks for the replies. I was curious if this was a "feature" of this model. My last K12 was an 02 and there are a lot of differences obviously. I will give it a few more fills and see what it does before I break into the tube for the tank.

 

[pauleknight]

I have this happen when I do not turn the key all the way to OFF when I fuel my LT.

Just my .02 cents...

 

[sgroover]

My 06 LT was doing exactly the same thing. I removed the sender unit a week back and did not find any dents or curves at all. The float seemed to be sliding completely up and down the sender. I took it apart so I could slide the tube over a framing square and it was perfectly straight.

I then cleaned all the electrical connections carefully. Those two thin wires the float slides on are very small and seem very fragile. I also cleaned the connections between the wiring harness and sender (on top of sender) and put some dielectric grease on them. I had read here that someone had corrosion there and it caused a similar issue.

I had also read here about someone putting a fuel cleaner in the tank to clean the components in the tank so I put a can of Seafoam in there.

When I put it all back together, it jumped to 304 miles to empty on the BC which seems to be right based on the amount of gas in the tank (it was near full). I had it on the center stand and didn't have any gas spill or overflow out of the tank. Praise the Lord!

So far everything seems to be working, but I haven't put any gas in it to check it.

I do wonder about the key not being off as the previous poster mentioned. I'll have to keep an eye on that to see if it makes a difference. Sounds like a possibility.

Hope some of this rambling will help you.

Take care,
Sammy

 

[AlaskaFish]

John brings up an interesting point here. My earlier reply was based on the many problems associated with the earlier LT's with the analog gauges like my 2000. Now that I think about the digital connection, it reminds me that my 2012 Tiger has a digital bar graph for the fuel gauge, and it always takes a few miles ride down the road after a fill-up before it indicates full. Don't know why, but it is posted as normal in the Tiger Forums. So maybe digital is actually slower sometimes!

John

Since this was your first fill up, give it a chance and watch it over the next few fill ups. Mine has been slow on a couple of them and perfectly normal for the majority. This seems to only occur on the 05 and up bikes and is not related to tube damage. May have something to due with the "read" interval on the newer bikes as it is not an "instant" read on these to feed the digital dash.

 

[knoticalone]

Was thinking of trying some Sea Foam. Not a big fan of additives in the tank but after having a Venture I could not have survived without it. The gauge seems to be responding normally as fuel goes down, but then again the change is not as rapid this way. Will probably be filling up again in a couple days so I guess I will find out more then.

I may also remove the tupperware again this weekend and clean the connections. Wish I had done that when it was off last time.

 

[Bones1955]

Mine seems to work fine but comes off full kinda early compared to my old Voyager.
Anyways I just fill and reset the odometer and don't think about gas till 250 miles or more...I could live without the gauge.

 

[knoticalone]

A quick update. Decided to do the canisterectomy. Figured I would eliminate the problem before it occured. I could blow air thru it but seemed to have some resistance. I cleaned the wires to the sender unit and greased them. Hope to fill it today and see if the sender unit will have to be removed next. I am thinking if I go that far I will just replace it since I am already in there. Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.

 

[bjedruszczak]

A quick update. Decided to do the canisterectomy. Figured I would eliminate the problem before it occured. I could blow air thru it but seemed to have some resistance. I cleaned the wires to the sender unit and greased them. Hope to fill it today and see if the sender unit will have to be removed next. I am thinking if I go that far I will just replace it since I am already in there. Thanks again for all the suggestions and help.

I had this issue on my 2007 LT occasionally and a while ago. I did not do anything about it and it's long gone. It fixed itself (!?)
Anyway, it's been at least a year and quite a few refills and no slowness anymore.
BJ

 

[knoticalone]

No luck again on this fill up. Took 20 miles for the fuel gauge to reach full, well actually about an 1/8 less than full. Probably used a half gallon while it was climbing as I was running at around 80MPH . After 30 minutes, DTE on trip computer still adjusting upwards.

 

[jzeiler]

My top bar never stays there very long but yours should be faster then that. Maybe you just have a "slow" bike.

 

[knoticalone]

More likely the rider than the bike. Seems to be accurate for decrease in fuel however. I do notice the computer adjust the DTE every minute or so and fluctuates a bit as I ride even once it gets to max. Curious if there is a way to "reset" the whole system as in battery connections removed for some time? I assume there is some sort of backup as it would erase other info.

 

[jzeiler]

The DTE does fluctuate as a normal matter of course. I have had it go up as I coast down hill and of course go down as I go up hill. So no reseting that. It uses a formula that is tied to both ave MPG and instant MPG to compute DTE so it is most accurate when you periodically reset MPG. You can reset the MPG and the ave MPH by holding the BC switch.

 

[whoughton]

I had this same issue on my '05,and since I started refueling on the side stand I have't had this problem ,maybe an air pocket

 

[knoticalone]

Appreciate the thought. I always refuel on the side stand. This last time I even tried to burp the tank by wiggling the bike back and worth. Hopefully over time this will improve. At least it takes longer for the gauge to go down than it does up! When I filled, the gauge still read 1/4 tank and I put 4.2 gallons in, so it seams to be fairly accurate. May try to bring it down to the bottom this time.

 

[jeffklt]

The DTE does fluctuate as a normal matter of course. I have had it go up as I coast down hill and of course go down as I go up hill. So no reseting that. It uses a formula that is tied to both ave MPG and instant MPG to compute DTE so it is most accurate when you periodically reset MPG. You can reset the MPG and the ave MPH by holding the BC switch.

John, once again you have me shaking my head. 200k on LT's and I never knew I could reset with the BC switch...somebody once accused me of being dull