Listen Up Young & Old

Saddletramp1200 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-25-2008, 07:13 PM

I just read a post from a member that scared the **** out of me!
A clogged gas tank VENT or ANYTHING else involving gasoline is a serious matter. If anyone has a problem with fuel no matter how slight repair it then!
If it can not be repaired then do NOT start the MOTOR! It takes ONE spark to
gravely injure you or even KILL you. This IS NOT a game. There IS no reset.
If you can not repair the problem shut off the motor and peddal home. I have been Owning/building/riding bikes/motorcycles for over 40 years. I had a friend
that played the game and lost. The gas tank blew and severely damaged several of his vital organs. He lived less than 24 hours. He had wraped black tape around a leaking fuel line. You can push a bike, a motorcycle, of chain it to a tree. DON'T ride it using the engine. I care about every one of you. Please don't take the chance. Master Motorcycle Tech aka Saddletramp

frenchman159 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-25-2008, 07:45 PM

I'm sorry to hear about your friend. With your experience do you have or know of a cap that doesn't leak, even a bit ? Both my bike and my wifes have a bit of fuel mixture around the cap and on the tank that we wipe off constantly to keep the paint looking good for as long as we can. It's not alot, just a bit, enough to be annoying ! I think we tried everything we could think of. Thanks in advance.

astronut · #3 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 03:28 AM

duely noted

thanks for the tip

UVsaturated · #4 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 03:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saddletramp1200

The gas tank blew and severely damaged several of his vital organs. He lived less than 24 hours. He had wraped black tape around a leaking fuel line.

As a safety team leader at a steel service center, I understand the importance of talking about safety issues and communication, however it goes a little far when someone exaggerates an accident.

You do realize that gasoline is only flammable and not "explosive". So would you like to tell us all how a gas tank catching fire damages vital organs, unless of course it was the guys eye balls?

Me thinks you have watched one too many episodes of the A-team where Hollywood makes gasoline tanks explode as if it was loaded with Composition 4 explosives.

huckersteve · #5 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UVsaturated

As a safety team leader at a steel service center, I understand the importance of talking about safety issues and communication, however it goes a little far when someone exaggerates an accident.

You do realize that gasoline is only flammable and not "explosive". So would you like to tell us all how a gas tank catching fire damages vital organs, unless of course it was the guys eye balls?

Me thinks you have watched one too many episodes of the A-team where Hollywood makes gasoline tanks explode as if it was loaded with Composition 4 explosives.

I know I'm certainly scared right now! Esp. since the cap on my real motorcycle won't even stay locked down, just sort of lays there with me hoping it stays put... I gotta look into replacing that thing!

cityevader · #6 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UVsaturated

You do realize that gasoline is only flammable and not "explosive". So would you like to tell us all how a gas tank catching fire damages vital organs, unless of course it was the guys eye balls?

Actually, if you accumulate a large quantity of gas vapor in a contained area, at a perfect 14:1 ratio with oxygen, it will indeed explode quite readily if given an ignition source.
But your point is very valid...typically gasoline is in a way too rich environment, allowing only a portion of it to burn at a time. Very little danger at all throwing a match into a bucket of gas, at least until it melts and the liquid fire then spreads everywhere!

**Bikeguy Joe** · #7 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cityevader

Actually, if you accumulate a large quantity of gas vapor in a contained area, at a perfect 14:1 ratio with oxygen, it will indeed explode quite readily if given an ignition source.
But your point is very valid...typically gasoline is in a way too rich environment, allowing only a portion of it to burn at a time. Very little danger at all throwing a match into a bucket of gas, at least until it melts and the liquid fire then spreads everywhere!

I think I'm gonna try that!

Be right back....

deacon · #8 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 02:23 PM

Some of you might remember the gas embargo in the seventies. People had a habit then of carrying a spare gallon of gas in the trunk of the car. At that time I was a member of the local pd.

We had a film of a car's "spare" gallon exploding in the trunk. The way the atf boys made it blow was not with c4 at all. They sat the junk car in the parking lot of a closed plant. The put 3/4 of a gallon of gasoline into a gallon metal container/ they left it in the sun most of the day. At 3pm they used a spark igniter only to fire the fumes. It blew the trunk lid off the car. Gasoline will explode if the circumstances are just right. I have never done it thank god, but I have no doubt that a half filled gas tank will create the right inviornment for an explosion. I call your attention to the airplane the blew up off the northeast coast of the usa a couple of years ago. A spark in a gas tank filled with fumes brought it down.

I believe you are riding around with half a stick of dynamite between your legs.

UVsaturated · #9 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deacon

I believe you are riding around with half a stick of dynamite between your legs.

If it were anywhere nearly like that, farmers would have used gasoline to blow stumps out of the ground instead of dynamite.

The perfect fuel to air ratio will allow gasoline fumes to burn at its most rapid rate, however that is no where near the rate of expansion that a pressure wave off a stick of dynamite propagates.

You also have to remember that you have to have all that air inside a gas tank for it to be at just the right ratio to burn this way, which is normally not the case with a closed gas tank.

I've seen plenty of auto races where cars have caught fire, some of them in classes without fuel cells containing foam cores and they do not explode, they just burn like crazy. If there ever was a perfect environment for a gas tank to explode, it would have been all the times I've seen cars burn down to nothing on those occasions. Not once did I ever see any of them explode. Exploding fuel tanks are a movie illusion, not something that happens the way it is depicted.

outdoorcat75455 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-26-2008, 05:48 PM

Actually there is quite a bit of truth in what deacon says. One gallon of gasoline, given the proper conditions has the same explosive potential as one stick of dynamite, but... a full tank really has no chance of exploding. Although a nearly empty tank could go off like a small grenade.

Gas tanks can explode, I have seen a tank on a small dirt bike explode, fortunately no one was on or near the bike at the time it went off, but it certainly left an impression on me.

Hollywood does over do things, and the chances of an explosion are rare, like getting struck by lightning, but the chances of getting severely injured does exist if the fuel system on anything that we have to be so closely situated to has some sort of a problem. (Pour a little gas down your pants leg and light it. You might find it difficult to have it extinguished before you'd like. (Actually, please don't pour the gas down your leg.))

Saddletramp1200 is bringing up a good point here, and I've known many to just patch or ignore a fuel system problem, that's not the best course, maintain and repair your fuel system correctly, not only for safety purposes, but it will eliminate other problems as well.