I just bought a goldwing/escort rig that has an aux gas tank in the right rear saddle bag. It looks like a 3 gallon tank. It is piped to recirulate in case you try to overfill the main tank. The NAPA fuel pump is bad and it does not work. I don't really know anything about fuel pumps. Is a fuel pump self priming ? Is there a better choice for a fuel pump or should I just buy a new NAPA pump ?
If you hook the fuel pick up for the aux tank to the vent line of the stock tank, all you need is a check valve and not a pump. The pump may have a check valve in it. The way this works is that when the stock tank has a bit of a vacuum it draws the fuel from the aux tank as such the main tanks fuel gauge reads full for a long time, when it finaly drops you know that the aux tank is now empty.
Yes, your fuel pump is self priming. What normaly burns them out is leaving them on after you have transfered all of the fuel.
Jay G
DMC sidecars
www.dmcsidecars.com
866-638-1793
I've gotta' Softtail/Champion Legend rig that I put an extra fuel tank on. I used a tank from Tour Tank (Coyote Manufacturing). I also put an electric fuel pump from NAPA on it. I had a choice of 2 fuel pumps with different pressures available, I used the lower pressure one. Mine is set up with an on/off valve on the triple trees with a switch in the tins, and is tee'ed into the fuel line under the bikes fuel tank. I use the aux tank first, when it runs dry I switch to the main tank by shutting off the fuel pump and closing the valve. I still have the main tank reserve to run on if need be. If the fuel pump is under the tank or below the top of the fuel tank while full of fuel, you don't need to worry about priming, if it's higher than the top of the tank then it'll need to be self priming.
Works great!
That's interesting to know that you can hook the aux tank to the vent line with a check valve only.
There are two lines from the aux tank run into the filler neck on my rig. The pump is hooked into the neck ( fill line ) on the right. The left hole in the neck looks like a vent and it runs straight back to the aux tank. I should be able to plug the filler line, install a check valve in the vent line and see if it draws.
Hi Randy, I have a GL1500 with a plastic 4 gallon tank in the right saddle bag. Mine has a gas cap neck about 1 1/4 high, epoxied to the normal fuel tank neck, the fuel line from the aux tank is on a fitting on this neck with the normal tank vent hose removed from the cap (no room for the stock cap) and on a fitting to the left of the fill hose on the neck. My aux tank has a vent hose that is routed below the rear fender and vents to the ground behind the rear tire. I have had to replace the napa pump once, they have two to choose from, I chose the slower cheaper one. It is wired directly to the battery, with a switch, and allowes me to pump from the aux tank while parked, so that I can remove the gas cap and see how full it is getting. I have turned it on while riding, but the napa pump makes a louder clicking noise when the tank gets empty, and my hearing is not good enough to hear it, and as someone else said that is what ruins these pumps. With your vent set up, I would expect main tank venting problems, as fuel is burned and vacuum builds in the main tank. As a side note I had the hot weather, hot fuel, weak Honda pump problem while on a trip this summer, and the cooler fuel in the aux tank saved me several times. Good luck with yours.
Lloyd. I sent you a PM
