NEWS
we finished packing up the trailer, George’s truck and my little van and went wearily off to get some sleep. I headed home from Kingsport about 7
a.m. the next morning, with George about ninety minutes behind me. Most of our people were gone when I left, but George saw Talken-Spaulding off on the leg that would lock in her 14th place finish. Just after I’d driven past Front Royal, Virginia— about an hour from my home—I got a fran- tic call from a friend of Super Ténéré rider Cowan. She was leaking a LOT of gas, and she needed help. She was collecting bonuses near our shop in Manassas, Virginia, and wanted to know if we could help her. Cowan used to ride a BMW—as a matter
of fact, her 2012 R 1200 RT is one of our shop loaners—but she rode a Yamaha in this rally. I told her to meet me at the shop and called George. I know his troubleshoot- ing skills are second to none, and if nothing else we’d be able to figure out what was wrong with her bike. Worst case, we’d trailer it to a Yamaha shop the next day and get it fixed there. Not settling for the worst case, though, I
had her explain to me what was going on. A lot of Iron Butt riders use auxiliary fuel tanks to extend their bike’s range, and Cowan was no different. I could see fuel leaking from the fitting plumbed into her main fuel tank that allowed fuel from the aux tank to flow in. I didn’t know how to fix it, but I knew I’d have to get the tank off. I’ve been riding BMWs since 2001 and
have worked on all my bikes, so I’m familiar with a few BMWs and how they’re put together. The Super Ténéré was confus- ing—one side panel’s screws were captive, while the other side’s screws came all the way out. The fuel and electrical fittings under the tank were odd and hard to manipulate. Luckily, just about the time I was getting frustrated, George drove up. It took an hour to get the fuel pump assembly out of the tank, but once it came out, disas- sembling the fitting revealed the culprit – a sheared o-ring. The hole in the tank for the fitting wasn’t quite smooth, and over the course of 8,500 miles, it sheared and started leaking. Once the leak started, it just got
48 BMW OWNERS NEWS September 2015
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