1500 Vulcan Fuel Pump Bypass - Permanently

So the fuel pump on my 1500 Vulcan crapped going down the highway. I managed to bypass it on the side of the road and I got to where I needed to go. But why does a carburetored bike need a pump? Especially considering it worked without one until the fuel in the tank got lower than the highest spot in the fuel line. A fuel pump also costs about $300.

So here's the stock fuel line routing. The fuel goes forward from the petcock instead of going directly to the carb. (This because the stock air box is in the way of a direct gravity feed to the carb.)

The fuel line goes forward and up, then to the filter. Basically as shown here.



Through the filter and to the pump, then finally the carb.


If the petcock was right facing instead of left then going to straight to carb would be simple.


So I had this great idea to buy a 500 Vulcan petcock that is right facing and vacuum operated, too.


Well, the 500 petcock will bolt on to the take, but the vacuum port won't clear the rocker box. I should have bought a 800 Vulcan petcock. It the output for the 800 points down and the vacuum port does not stick out behind.


So I'm back to my first plan. Modify my stock petcock to right facing. Some drilling, tapping, and a plug should get the job done.


Tear it down and remove the output fitting, too.


Drill the blind end out to same diameter as the stock output size.


A hole all the way though.


Drill the stock output side only to the tap size for a 1/8 pipe plug.


Tap it.


Pipe seal the plug threads and install it.


I figure a little sealant on the brass output nipple wouldn't hurt either.


Press the nipple in.


Finished modified petcock.




Here's the bypass that got me home.


This is the hose from the filter to the pump. Notice that like the 800 the 1500's petcock output is larger than the carb inlet. I will use this hose and the stock filter, so I won't have to buy universal filter with two different fittings.


The bend in the hose is about right.


Stock filter and new straight line to the petcock.

I put some gas in the tank and then drained it back to only a reserve amount of fuel. I plan to do the shakedown on reserve because this is were the fuel flow will be the slowest. If I can run 65 mph on reserve without spurting and the petcock doesn't leak, then I will can it a success.

Paracord Stuff

Okay, I have been messing with this stuff. Cobra stitches mostly.

I learned most of it here. http://www.homemade-gifts-made-easy.com/paracord-lanyard.html

I made this nifty zipper pull for a broken zipper. This is neater than the zip-tyes I was using.

Melted Rainsuit / Riding Suit Patch

So I got this great deal on second hand First Gear Thermal One-piece suit and the first time I were it out of town I melt leg on the exhaust pipe. It must of happened when I was stretching my legs or something. The material is not as heat resistant and the HT Overpants. So I had read about this fix. I figured it was worth a shot.

Here's my hole.


I didn't use an ironing board cover, but the lady at the fabric store said this was the material used to make the covers. So I cut a piece big enough cover the hole with enough extra to make a hem on the patch too.


Here's the Stitch Witchery. I bought the widest kind to stick the patch on with.


I should have bough some narrower stuff to make my patch hems. I folded a piece of stitch witch in between.


Wet wash cloth and iron.


Four times and my patch is ready.


I cut off the crusty melted parts around the hole to keep things smooth.


Put the patch in place.


Stitch witch under the first edge and iron that on.


Lay out the rest and iron it on.


This corner was loose so I cut a little to use on it.


Good to go. We'll see how that holds up.

Bugeye Taillights

So I bought one of these LED's units off ebay. It looked cool, but the tail and brake lights weren't really bright enough.


So I decided to buy two regular bulb small cateyes from J&P and hoped they would bolt on and I could use a trailer light module to keep the brake and turnsignal functions.

Well the small cateyes are too big for the bracket.



So I think I will build a bracket and set the lights to something like this to be more custom.


First trace the shape on heavy paper.





Cut another piece to get the size of the bracket needed.


Roughly lay everything out.



Trace the lights onto the bracket template.


Figure out the where to put the break in the bracket.


I had a sheet metal friend shear and break the bracket.


Now to layout the holes.


Mark down the middle.


Mark the plate holes.


I'm using one of these rubbers to mount the bracket to the fender so I need those holes, too.


Center punch.


Drill.


Check the holes.


I have these funny elevator bolts to use under the tag to the fender.


Another rough lay out of the lights.


Pick a point for the first holes from center line.



Now from the top.


Center punch.


Figure out the center-to-center on the light studs.


Scribe an arc for the second hole.


Center to verify the marks and light housing spacing.


Figure out the height for the second hole.



Center punch, drill, check. This is where I realized I need a big hole in the middle, too.


Scribe out where the big hole should be.


Figure out the center of the small holes.



I don't have a bit big enough to make my hole so I made the biggest hole I could with a uni-bit.


Then used a big counter sink from both directions to enlarge the hole.



Fits good.



Basic build done.


Mark and drill the fender.




I scribbed out the taillight shapes in the lay out fluid with taillights installed.(I had a picture, but I lost my whole camera, and the rest of the blog is done with my son's toy camera, sorry worse pictures than normal.)

Now to rough out the shape with a jig saw.


I used a drill in the middle.



Another fit check.


It still needs worked over.



Looking good now.


Now to put the bolts in.


Okay, I broke that one.


Back to regular countersunk screws.



Now to clean it up. You don't need lay dye cleaner, carb cleaner does just fine.


Black paint of course.


Now to the wiring. I'm using a trailer light module that converts independant turnsignal to common bulbs. That way we will have to turnsignals and brakes on only two lights.


I'll mount this under the tank. (If I knew for sure that I was going to dump the fuel pump, I would mount it there.)


Light wires aren't longer enough. The wire colors are weird too. Yellow is ground, red is bright filament, and black is low filament.


Solder up extensions and add shrink wrap.


Taillight mounted and its wires run.


Module shrink wrapped and wires routed.


What a mess.


I did the taillight to module wires first. I labeled the taillight wires and soldered them to the module wires. It might have been better to not hard wire all of those, but space was limited.


Now the bike to module wiring.


I used plugs because there were plugs there already.


It turned out good, but I may need to figure out how to clean up the back a bit.