Doublecheck your wiring

14 Comments on this post

1. Rusty Nutz said:

   I talked to him. IIRC, the problem was a fiery backfire through the carbs, no air cleaners, plus a fuel line leak of some sort.

   My build is getting a braided fuel line and good hose clamps.

   Maybe he could post for us here and tell us exactly how to avoid this.

   August 4th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
2. Ted said:

   @ Rusty Nutz
   That be cool if you reached out to him and got him to give us the lowdown.

   August 4th, 2009 at 4:47 pm
3. Rusty Nutz said:

   Oops wrong info. He said leak in aftermarket carb seal and backfire. I assumed some kind of drippy fuel line as it would make sense.

   Anyway, it underscores the point of making sure carbs, fuel lines, timing, petcocks are good to go. It’s not the first bike fire I’ve heard of.

   August 4th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
4. Rusty Nutz said:

   Oh yeah you shouldn’t try to hang the carbs on the stock rubber booties, they aren’t made to work without the stock air cleaner box helping to support the carbs. Plenty of guys make aluminum carb manifolds that utilize a piece of rubber hose and hose clamps for better support and to isolate carbs from engine vibration.

   August 4th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
5. Teebs said:

   Did anybody else go all queasy watching this?

   …and did anybody else wonder why some motherf*cker didn’t get a friggin fire extinguisher at some point and put the damn thing out? Why the f*ck would you just stand there looking like a moron watching it burn?

   That’s f*cked up right there.

   August 5th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
6. Jon said:

   That shit sucks! I had a bike catch on fire like 15 years ago. Went out one morning to start up my GPZ550 and it cranked over, then BOOM! A big fireball came up in my lap and caught my tank on fire. Gas leaked from a crack in the tank into the coils. Luckily I didn’t have the rear bolt securing the tank to the frame so was able to grab the tank and rip it the hell off my bike so only the tank was destroyed and the new Mikuni RS carbs I had on it got a little toasted but were rebuildable. Definately make it a habit to check my bikes for fuel leaks every time I go to ride now and always turn the fuel tap to off since those damned diaphragm petcocks like to fail and cause fires too.

   August 5th, 2009 at 11:08 pm
7. andy carter said:

   geez thats gnarly! just a word of advise if you plan to run ss braided lines cover them in shrink tube first so that they dont chafe other areas on your bike. you could run the ss line to avoid a fuel fire and cause an electrical fire in the process. just take some regular old shrink tubing and slip it over the braided line and hit it with a heat gun, bam problem solved. oh and it gets rid of the gay looking braided ricer look. you can get the really nice xrp fabric/kevlar coverd stuff too that looks good and doesnt chafe. just my $.02

   August 9th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
8. blackwidow said:

   Thats a drag I had my bike fall off a trailer while I was transporting it on the highway and I had to watch it burn what a depressing day that was. This was like back in may and I am rebuilding that bike and am currently riding a stock one and will chop that one next. I’m not giving up on my bike and I hope this guy doesn’t either.

   August 9th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
9. blackchop said:

   awww hell.

   August 11th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
10. 0100 said:

    I was out riding on the Gypsy Run in 08 with Tyler and his crew from Lowbrow when my bike went up in flames from a leaky carb that backfired. We saved the bike with a gallon of cider, yes cider. Still ride the bike to this day.

    September 2nd, 2009 at 4:17 pm
11. Ted said:

    I’ve had a bike catch fire back in the day.. Definitely sucks. This video does make you a bit queasy.. haha

    @blackwidow have you begun rebuilding?

    September 2nd, 2009 at 9:03 pm
12. Paul said:

    Geez……maybe everybody and their brother shouldnt be choppin up bikes…….Manual -$39.00 (yes, following the manual for a chop is the same, the motor basically doesnt change)…….not drinking a case of beer before you work on your bike +$12.00 in your pocket…….paying attention (free if you do it the first time)……Not setting your bike or your balls on fire……..priceless!

    September 26th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
13. Zman4112 said:

    The coil was bad on one side so it wasn’t running right.
    Had the coil tested and it came back ok.
    So I richened up the right carb to see if that was the problem.
    That didn’t help, so a friend brought me over another coil and told me to try it, ( just to ammuse him ) I did. I was around the corner from my house and smelled gas, looked down and it backfired. There was a small pool of gas on the engine below the carb, it went up intsantly melting the rubber fuel line and it just went up from there.
    The neighbor exhausted all the fire stuff he had including a bucket of dirt. The good news is it still ran after new carbs and tank. But it is getting all new paint and wiring so it will be done by summer 10.

    November 24th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
14. Harold said:

    had a short in my wiring causing a small electrical fire. a couple burnt fingers a nd a couple of good tugs and the bike was saved. that could have been my bike but lady luck smiled on me.

    January 10th, 2010 at 4:43 pm

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