Fuel Float conversion?

[binge]

Right. A while ago I changed my standard speedfight bars for a set of Renthal Style street bars. This resulted in Removing the whole dash and Just having a Bycicle Digital speedo...
Its the second time Ive had to push to a petrol Garage now ...

I was in the garage messing around with my scooter, I took the float out and saw that I could probably bodge a couple of terminals onto 1, The swing arm of the float, and 2, The bracket in which the float pivots on...

I then wired these up to a bulb and a battery and used the float as a switch. When I lifted the float up, the bulb went out, when I let the float drop and the bub lit....

I was just about to put my float back in the fuel tank and It clicked...

When the terminal make contact they cause a small electrical spark dont they...
Resulting in a big explosion wit it being in the fuel tank...

Is there a safer way to do a similar sort of mechanism...

Cheers <|Binge|>

Oh, heres a diagram of what I created...

[binge]

Can anybody tell me if the above method is safe
Cheers...

<|Binge|>

[Lone-Wolf]

Wotcha.

Just make sure you are well insured against fire. There again, that will be the least of your worries because the the tank will explode first.

I take it there used to be some kind of fuel gauge, or does the float in the tank serve some other purpose ?
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Cheers.
^..^
L.W. - www.moonshiners.org.uk

[stryker]

Firstly, so long as the tank is sealed you'd not have a explosion, in fact with a breather you'd probably not have an explosion. Its pretty hard to even light a casserole dish with petrol in the bottom as above the petrol there would be no air (called vapour lock with zippos).

To be safe though, you need to run as little voltage/current through the contacts as possible. IE run just a couple of volts through the contacts, use this to drive a power transistor, and use the output of that to drive a relay which controls the power to your bulb. In honesty you can do away with the tranny and just use a low power relay.

Thats about as simple as I could put it.
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Now what?

[mr.z]

By the way fuel indicators tend to be horribly inaccurate anyways i'd personaly just use the trip/odometer (well i do anyways)

That way you don't risk becomeing a two wheeled ball of flame (and it does happen)

The trip is less of a pain than you would think, as long as you remember to reset at every refill its foolproof... the tricky bit is seeing how much fuel you get till you run out, set your trip, get a 5L can of petrol to take with you, ride till it runs out... thats how many miles you get!

Bit lowtech but i haven't been left petrol-less for two years.
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>RidingSkills<->Tech Tips<->MyBikes<

[Lone-Wolf]

[binge]

Well there is a Varieable Resistor in the tank anyway. Surely that would create small sparks...
Any way, Im only insured TPO so im not going to risk it....

I dont have a trip omenter...

Ive got a 100ml bottle of brake fluid (Nearly empty) And ive got to bleed my rear so ill use up the rest of the bottle. Fill it with petrol and stick it down in my battery box inside the belly pannel. That way ive got a fair bit of spair fuel if I do run dry...

How often should I use the petrol in this bottle and put fresh in?

<|Binge|>

[divuk83]

I do the same thing with my petrol mate. No guage on mine, just stops when its out. although I dont use it everyday and its garaged at the mo. I just put a 5 litre petrol can in my bag when I go out and insure its filled up. To make things more fun I also run on pre-mix so I carry little measuring bottles of oil about with me too Usually try and run it down as low as possible for sprinting to cut down on weight, so its always near empty
Scooter center sell cool little oil bottles that I use. They have guages for each percentage of premix on the side.
https://www.scootercenter.com/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=44&products_id=782

Get a 5 litre fuel can from halfords, I reckon it would fit under your seat for emergencys as its quite roomy under a speedfight seat.

Didn't your speedfight have a fuel guage before? If so take it out of the old instrument panel and drill a hole through the legshields and mount it there using the old wiring.

Dave

[binge]

Thats a good Idea. BUT the speedfight clocks are SHIT! they are like a single plastic mould...

<|Binge|>

(A 5ltr cans a bit big) 100ml will do

I dont bother with Pre mix either... Scoots fast enuf thanks. It will keep up the boot of most 125 scooters

[Lone-Wolf]

[binge]

I was going to do that but...
The wires at the front all go into a couple of box clip connectors wirh like 30 wires in each (Was for the top cowl clocks and lights before I removed it)...
Now ive found the dashboard clock lights because ive used that to add a smal LED to enlight my Digital speedo at night,,,

How do I go about finding the fuel gague Live and earth?
And how would I wire them up to an aftermarket gague...

Also, any Ideas on a temp gague...
My scoot already has a thermomiter in the cylinder and A wire (Just 1 ) leading up to the box connector too...

<|Binge|>

[mchaggis]

Naked electrics + fuel vapour = boom.

Not that difficult to understand, surely? Doesn't this bicycle speedometer have an odometer function too? Surely you can use the age old methods of a) checking your tank to make sure you've enough before you leave, and b) keeping tabs on your accrued mileage since the last fill up?
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I must not be a troll...
Mmmm, Guinness
Discovering the delights of Hammerite and a 3/4" brush.

[binge]

Well theres actually a Variable resistor in the fuel tank atm. It was a part of the origional fuel gague. But since I changed my handle bars there is no room for the fuel gague so I came up with the idea of bodging the switch mechanism onto the float and puting am LED up at the bars...

BUT letrally 10 seconds before I droped that float into the tank I realised that when the terminals make contact, Im dead!

<|Binge|>

(Its like a bomb from 1 of them stupid movies like "Speed")
U kno.... Let your tank drop below 1/4 and your bike will explode!