Well, I myself, have been searching and discovering. I finally decided to tear into my gas tank myself as it sounds like all the Stealers are BS'ing us devoted HD followers. Gas gauges in our bikes are really no different than they are in cars. No different at all. I had, if you remember, the problem of needing to know if my filter was getting close to plugging up. I have 37,000 miles on my 05 Heritage Softail Classic, mostly all stock. Just add-ons; accessories etc. No different mods to injection, air filter, pipes, or any of that. So, the last year I have decided to do all my maintenance myself. When I took it to a paid 'wrench' and he charged me $175 for what I felt was nothing more than an oil change, the decision was made for me. And the stuff really isn't that difficult. So, getting off the track here...........I took the cluster off the tank, and opened the top plate where all the guts of the gas tank are hiding.......actually took the tank clear off as I wanted to run wiring underneath in an orderly fashion for HD fog lights which in the end rather suck as they mount on the engine guard but reflect off the back of the fork frame and because of the forks don't get really much light out in the front of the bike......getting away from the thread again; sorry.........so I drained the gas tank, and removed it completely from the bike. Really an easy project!!! Now I opened up the tank.........oooooooooohhhhhhhhh, mystery is beginning to unravel.......took the assembly apart and removed the fuel filter and guess what? At 37,000 miles it was really beginnning to clog up and was getting difficult to blow through......so I changed it with a new one from the stealer.........$50 thankyou very much........however, to all you out there that only put a few miles on your bikes a year, eventually if you keep the bike very long, your filter will have to be replaced because it is just like a car's and when it starts running crappy and you don't know specifically why it is running crappy, I can see the stealer deciding that they need to run a complete trouble-shoot system on your bike and end result may be that you have to pay $350 to find out that you do need a new filter after all.........a year ago they told me they had not sold any filters in the last 5 years for any softails so it indicated to them you don't need to replace your filters at all..........."as they rubbed their hands together, got that evil grin on their faces, and softly said, 'yessssssssssss' ".............now, as I was saying about the filter/gause assembly............. I removed it from the tank and the whole assembly consists of a float on a rod, the same exact type of gauge as a car, a fuel pump and pickup pre-filter, and a couple plastic fuel lines and a filter, all bundled up ina nice package. To remove the assembly (there is verrrrrrry little room initallyto work here) you use a thin blade screw driver and push down and away on the gauge part of the assembly. When you do this, a screendoor spring allows the gauge to straighten out from a 90 degree angle to almost a 180 degree angle and you just slide the whole mess out the holeof the tank. Then you change the hose and filter out as you cannot reuse the pump-to-filter hose. That nylon plastic line is some of the most armor proof material known to man. Thankfully, a new hose is included in the 'kit'. Then you put on the new hose, filter, and fit with new clamps (2) and you are good to put it back in the tank. Before you do, though, you need to 'clip' the end off the float rod (I saw this in another thread somewhere) because they come stock with about 1/4 " sticking beyond the end of the float and they tend to hang up on the side of the tank from the factory. Then you extend it out and slide it in place and as it goes in

 

I've always liked stories that have a happy ending. Thanks for sharing.

When its my turn to get in there I will make sure the float will stay a little "fuller", longer. All of this is akin to how much water you want in your tolet tank by bending the float arm.

My consistent challenge seems to be running out of the right tool at the wrong time. I get something half torn apart and then I can't turn something, reach the next thing, the fastener size changes to something I don't have, missing a deep socket, or the ratchet won't turn where my only room forit is.God forbid the need to meet a foot-pound torque specification somewhere along the line. My torque-measuring stuff will barley put a screw into the middle of a 4' x 8' sheet of plywood for the clearence I need. Forget about reaching into somewhere where the flashlight barley reaches.

I have been sneaking-up on mods and changes little by little. Typically, I've always been one of those unfortunate guys that has a fastener or hex nut laying on the ground next to my projects that I thought I was finally done with.

Now, electrical stuff is what I was trained in, and have the most experiencewith running out of tools with. But I have an ample amount of test lights, meters, soldering irons, crimping tools, and confidence, so not much there slows me down.

Your thread was one of confidence-building, and success. Always a good thing.

 

Great informative post! Thanks a million for your input!

 

Mil,
Great post. Thanks for sharing the info. I have been intending to go in there for some time in order to adjust things to better show when just a gallon is left. I hesitated only due to the 'mystery'.

 

PoorBoy...this is my 2nd reply to your answer of a couple days ago. After a quite lengthy reply I hit OK or whatever, send, etc. and was promptly informed that there was an error in something and nothing got posted!!! Ugg! Best to just leave it alone and come back at a later time.......anyway, guess I just needed to login as I did a moment ago. Thought one stays logged in but guess not. Live and learn!
Anyway, thanks for the comments. Yes, I know about specialized tools and etc. Sometimes you need a tool that will only be used once in a blue moon if ever....but fortunately you may use it again down the road to loan to a friend when he needs it only once. And that's what it's all about; helping friends and etc. Women have all this and that for all their activities: shoes, earrings, etc. For me, I like to collect tools. Can't justify the price sometimes but sometimes you can't get the tool when you need it either. So, we smash our fingers, cut ourselves, etc. just because we won't buy a special tool. Plus tools look great inside our cabinets, on the walls, etc. I am way behind when it comes to cost of tools versus money it saved me but I quickly advance when it comes to having the right tool at the right time. And when you have the right tool, you can get the job done, and you don't have to rely on someone else to charge you to do the job just to find out that they didn't do it correctly or completely because they didn't have the right tool either. Frustrating.......
I used to repair cuckoo clocks as a side line and still remember the first one I did for someone else and as I was carrying all the parts from my garage to my shop inside a towel after cleaning them, I lost one tiny part somewhere in the yard (at night). Can't remember what the outcome was but taught me the importance of being verrrrrrrry careful to keep parts together. Working on our bikes is no different. I rarely end up with extra parts any more........but the incident that taught me the most from that is when I rebuilt my 60 chev engine and ended up with a couple left over new rubber pieces from the rear main seal. I thought I had put everything in place but the rear main seal leaked. Had to pull the engine back out and replace that part. Couldn't believe I had forgotten it and left it out. Oh well, live and learn...........
Yes, that gas gauge float is just like a toilet. Have to bend it a bit and do the trial and error thing. I put mine back in the other day and end result was I had my light come on at 111 miles. So, I took it back out and bent it 1/4" lower and yesterday it came on at 131 miles. So, I took it out last night and have bent it 1/2" lower. Today I will put it back in and hopefully it will come on about 150 miles or so which should be close to where it should be and will be acceptible to me.
You sound like you enjoy life and don't take it so seriously as some do. I subscribe to that theory as well. It's what keeps me young. Take care. Milwaukee

 

Thanks for the insight and info. I was wondering about the fuel filter.

MikeM

 

Awesome info!
Scott

 

Just for further information on this subject, HD recommends fuel filter replacement every 20K miles. I don't know what dealer you went to, but when they told you they hadn't replace a filter in 5 years, they were either lying to you or they didn't know their a$$ from six bits.

 

Since the tank is back on the bike...I'm assuming... when you put the "guts" back into it, wouldn't it also work to put exactly one gallon of gas in the tank and then run your check on the gas light coming on? I think that would save the time spent having to adjust it a couple of times to get it right. Just thinkin' outloud...

 

Scurvy, excellent idea! And I tried that. In 1 qt. intervals as a matter of fact. After 7 qts and the light was still on, I made the decision to just fill up the tank. Not sure if it has to reset itself by going clear to the top before the unit will reset but that is what I did. 1st time came on at 1 2/3 gallons left by the pump. 2nd attempt was about 1 1/3 by the pump. Made the last adjustment yesterday and hopefully it will be where I can live with it. I have my limit as well. It is indeed just like the toilet bowl float as far as setting it to come on where you want it to. Just like setting the float to put wa wa in as far as you want the tank to go up. You do have to set the float first and then see if it comes on where you want it to. Having to adjust it with a gallon of gas in the tank, the top of the tank open (to reach in and pull the guts out, plugging and unplugging wiring while the tank is open, and retorque everything before it is ready, coupled with the fact that it is either a go/no go item as far as whether the light comes on or not; not sure that all would be an easy thing to get through. All this ain't rocketscience.........but close........... Probably why results are so varied from bike to bike. They are just mechanical and people is just people. And therein lies our dilemma...........Milwaukee