I'm chasing dirty gas issues - needle valve (new two weeks ago) causing gas overflow and stalling. Tomorrow I'll pull the bowl and clean it and will likely be ordering a new petcock as well. I'm not going to flush the tank until the new petcock installation. But I want to install a fuel filter now so I can continue riding.

The filter is often mentioned here, but not detailed that I have found in searching the old posts.

I found a small filter at AutoZone, looked like it would fit just fine. Took it home and went to the manufacturer's website looking for flow numbers.

I found out the AutoZone filter was for a Briggs and Stratton engine. I figured the Savage would need more fuel flow than a lawnmower.

The area bike shops are closed today, so I wasn't able to get a filter there, but picked up a universal Fram filter at Fleet Farm. It was too long - not a lot of space to work with!

What are you guys using for inline filters? The one mentioned in the Clymers is twice the size of the AutoZone mini?

Source, Brand, part numbers and a picture would be appreciated! I'd be most interested in LOCAL procurement vs. a web order.

Thank you.

Ah, you are going to provoke the fuel filter wars all over again with your innocent question.  Shame upon your punkin' haid for doing this turrible turrible thang again !!

=================================

There are 3 positions taken by the various fuel filter warriors around here.

1) you don't need no stinking fuel filter.  Petcock assembly has a screen on it already.

2) get any sorta little bitty filter that will fit in the fuel line that currently exists.  Anything is better than nothing.

3) use what fuel line that exists as a lead in to a larger clear 10 micron pleated paper filter fuel filter (Autozone sells them) which gets tucked up under the seat where you can still see it and you put in a new piece of hose from the exit side of the bigger filter running back to the carburetor.  Big ain't bad nor hard to do either.  Note how the new return hose has nice broad bends to it so it won't ever pinch itself off in use.
Big clear 'ol thang will show you condition of your fuel, graphically illustrates any vacuum petcock issues you may come up on, traps any condensation water from the tank and shows it to you and it also has enough trash holding capacity so it will last for years & years & years without plugging up.  
Plus you can SEE what's going on ....  big plus on this point when you are broke down by the side of the road doing "what the frik" troubleshooting.

==================================

The cruxt of these three positions is "do you really want to remove all the small trash and water from from your gasoline or do you want to only take out the big chunks?"

Weeeeeehaw !!   Let the fuel filter wars begin !!



Oldfeller

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 05/24/08 at 18:31:47:


Oldfeller, what's wrong with a "healthy dose" of water?  

What's wrong with a healthy dose of water?

Durn it, I pays near on to $4 a gallon fer pur gasoline and that there stinky little rascal runnin' that service station is mixin' water inner his product ON PURPOSE?   When pressed, he sez the alkyhol his distributor is a lacing into his truckloads (legal, but he's not tellin' nobody nether) is hygroscopic, whatever that there means.

That's cheat'n !!  I use my little truth bulb to catch'm at it.




============

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/4158551.html

(you got to scan down several pages to get to the good stuff)

Seriously now, alchohol (and the water that comes with it) in cheap gas is a clear and present danger as our scoot wasn't designed to handle alternate fuels.  Hydroscopic fuel additives such as alcohol will promote tank rusting and other bad things in your fuel system which can lead to rust and "strange trash" in your tank.  

You do want to stop all this "strange" before it gets into your carburetor, now don't you?  10 micron pleated paper is the cat's meow for stopping various forms of strange, especially when combined with all them fine alcohol-bound water micro droplets.

Check out my current "gasoline" in the picture show above -- pretty murky and nasty looking, isn't it?  A certain amount of alcohol is currently permitted as an "anti-knock additive" even in non-alky gasoline so you can't blame folks for thinnin' out their mix a bit with $2.50 a gallon anti-knock additives (and that little bit of extra H2O) since it is legally permitted now-a-days.  

Ammoco doesn't do this, nor does BP or Exxon.  Your local Quik Pic who generally has the best gas prices locally, you betcha he does .... his distributor does it for him before he loads the tanker truck.

Emulsified alcohol bound water in micro droplets, ain't that a kick?  And you thought you just had to worry about condensation in the tank and slugs of water from bad leaky underground tanks .....

How how did you like the full text of the patent to put water in gasoline using the alcohol and other surfacents to keep it in micro emulsion suspension?  Illuminating, wasn't it?  Got to keep scanning down the pages to get to the percentages of H2O that alcohol gas can be coaxed into carrying.  Amazing, ain't it?  That's a lot of water.

Now you know why some gas is slightly cloudy looking nowadays instead of crystal clear reddish-tan like it used to be when we were kids.

What happens to the water in the filter?  Why, eventually you get some good alcohol laden gas that isn't intentionally water laced, and the trapped water "evaporates" as the fresh alcohol flows through it picking up water molecules as it goes on by.

The rusty dirt that stays behind makes the little dark slick that develops on the lower surface of the filter bowl.  BTW, Wal-Mart sells the clear filters (Fram brand) in their auto departments for $3 and $4 (two different sizes of clear filters).  Either would work just dandy.

I wouldn't bet a vital organ on it, Saratovich, but I think the fuel line is 5/16.  Double check before you buy any 3/8.

Now now boys, you jest gotta pretend to understand how turn of the century Society of Automotive Engineers thought about sizing tubing and hoses.  They copied the Brit system which was based on measuring the size of the nipple the hose went over.

Then you got to savor the flavor of the METRIC nipple size Suzuki had to deal with.  But, since this here is a filter war (which is actually a re-boil of some old filter wars) I done KEPT my original bits and pieces all together and I can snappy a pic of what they looked like (along with a digital caliper stuck inside the OEM tubing which is nowhere as well made as the nylon braced tubing I used to make the return trip from the far end of the clear filter.  

Way she's spec'd is quarter inch ID (6mm ID metric, 0.250" English) which is a wee smidgin tighter than the OEM tubing really was at 0.2675" on the unexpanded unused end of things, taking my best guess at sticking a caliber inside a piece of movable rubber tubing, anyway.

Get yourself a passel kit full of various sizes of quick connect hose clamps like I did and you can make durn sure nothing ever leaks on your filter installation job.  

Hates it when my $4 a gallon gas dribbles out, I do.  And she might if you upsized the hose to .3125" on the ID (5/16).   Better to fight a bit tight than try to loosie the goosie.

<hee hee>

Oldfeller

Now ain't that like a youngster, braggin' about the size of his caliper.