I ran a PINGLE fuel filter on my old sporty for years and years with no problem at all. Just remember to crack it open and clean out the bronze element with clean gas (i did it whenever i was changing oil- or any other maintainence--about twice or three times a year). It did catch alot of crap.
if it ever got plugged on the road- just remove the element.

 

On a carbed bike there is no fuel pump and gravity won't push the fuel adequately through an inline filter, especially when the tank starts to get low. If you happen to have a filter that does flow, it ain't doing much filtering.

 

So I gotta ask, if the extra filter gets clogged up from use, and it is better to run without one because it will eventually clog up, do we really want the stuff that is clogging the filter to run into the carb/engine if we don't run an extra filter??? YD

 

Those filters I listed are pretty small. If you are having a problem with fuel quality, keep a spare with you. They are also pretty cheap and available at any auto parts store. I keep a few in stock and use them everywhere. You can blow right through them. They are low restriction. I even use them on my chipper shreader, which was having a problem with crud gunking up the carb. No problems since. Another use is for the end of a fuel tank vent tube. Not really needed on our bikes, but I use them whenever the evap canister happened to "fall off" on a car or truck.

 

In-line fuel filters are designed mainly for use with fuel pumps. It's been my experience that the filter is so fine that after a few tanks of gas once the level in the tanks get below 1/2 the weight of the gas can no longer puish its way through the filter by gravity alone. On cars with manual or electric fuel pumps they work fine but I've tried them no less that three times on bikes and they failed all three times.

If the furel you're getting is so dirty or if your tank has so much debris in it that the intank filter gets plugged up fast I suggest you either switch stations or drain and clean out the tank.

 

That makes sense and is an excellent description...no its not from bad gas or dirty gas, it's just for getting the remainder of "paint chip" type OEM tank liner stuff/residual. Just trying to keep the carb clean from the liner material. It seems the failing OEM liner is a fairly common problem and the subject is posted many times on various forums including this one when I googled it.

I suppose the paper element type is better than the sintered bronze/brass type filter when you consider flow. I assume the ones Dr Hess is talking about are the disposable paper element type of filter.

I guess I'm just gonna run a filter, keep some spares and spare 1/4 hose in my bag, and play it by ear. YD

I guess MoCo does not even put a liner in the tank anymore based on some of the posts I read because this problem is so common. YD

 

Your carb runs a 1/4" hose????
Mine uses a 3/8" hose.

 

Yes 1/4, even bought a spare used OEM petcock and it is 1/4, put a new brass inlet to replace the plastic one on the CV carb and it is 1/4. 1/4 ID tubing is what I use...3/8 is oil lines on my bike. YD

 

That's interesting!!!!
The only 1/4" I have is the crossover tube on the bottom front of my tanks.

 

I have cleaned the inside of tanks using small pieces of chain or nuts and washers . put them in and keep turning the tank , no outside damage but removes most of what is in there . OLD SKOOL !!!