section where the snowmelt had turned a creek crossing into a 20-yard section of river running over our road. A foot of fast water had eroded the road into a boulder field. After I managed to pick my way through the boulders and head up the bank on the other side, I heard Sam in my head- set saying he was stuck. I pulled over, put down my side stand and got off my bike, which immediately fell on top of me. The side stand had sunk six inches into the mud. I looked up to see Sam underway again and coming up the bank toward me. After he found firm ground to plant his bike, he helped me pick up mine and we were off. We kept climbing, and as we approached
the tree line, we found a flat spot that would be ideal for pitching our little tent. That evening we cooked a Backpacker’s
Pantry meal. Then a second. As the sun went down, we got into our sleeping bags, excited to be falling into the natural rhythm of going to sleep as the sun set and getting up with its rise. The next morning began the day we’d
been talking about for almost six months. Engineer Pass was just an hour away, and we packed our sleeping bags and sopping wet tent, not allowing the rain of the previ- ous night to dampen our spirits. As Sam pulled onto the road, his bike stalled. “My bike won’t start,” he said. “What do you mean?” “Well, it died when I first started it up a
minute ago, then it restarted okay, but it seemed low on power as I rode up here. Now it’s dead and won’t start again.” I could hear his engine turning over as he tried to start it, but nothing was firing. Houston, we have a problem. I’d learned a little about engines over the
past year when I helped a friend rebuild his dirt bike. I know engines are really pretty simple—they need fuel, air, and spark. One of the three had to be missing on Sam’s bike since it had been running fine just the day before. The Honda XR250 I’d spent the summer working on was a single cylinder carbureted engine, but our F 800 GSes are fuel-injected, twin-cylinder 800cc beasts and much more complicated. But, I told myself, the same fundamentals still apply. Fuel, air, and spark—it had to be one of those three. The fuel tank of the F 800 GS is under the
Left, The Alpine Loop.
seat, and we found the fuel feeder line com- ing out of the tank. Sure enough, there was a round access panel that we assumed con- cealed an in-tank fuel pump. The first thing to do would be to disconnect the fuel line and turn on the ignition to see if it started squirting fuel at us. After all, isn't a fuel pump supposed to pump fuel? We were on the side of a mountain without cell service, so I knew AAA wasn’t coming to tow us out of there. We’d have to figure this one out ourselves. Sam had made a reference to an Yvon Chouinard quote the night before. Something along the lines of, “It’s not an
adventure until something goes wrong.” “I guess this is now officially an adven-
ture,” I said as I turned on the ignition. Nothing happened—no stream of fuel, no whirring sound from a spinning fuel pump. “All right, it’s got to be the fuel pump,” I
said. “Let’s pull it out of the tank.” We soon had the access panel open,
snapping pictures to make sure we could remember how it had come apart when the time came to put it back together. We care- fully pulled out the fuel pump assembly and removed it from its wiring. With the fuel pump in hand and the access panel back in
April 2016 BMW OWNERS NEWS 61
Above, The fuel tank of the F 800 GS is under the seat, and we found the fuel feeder line coming out of the tank. Sure enough, there was a round access panel that concealed an in-tank fuel pump. Below, the pump.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132