Hey guys,

I've just been emailing scottoiler to find out why my recently fitted scotty doesn't seem to work... turns out that the instructions on the site are a little wrong and my vacuum screw that i need to attach the scotty too is under the tank.

Just got an email off the bloke telling me that i'll 'probably' get away with 'raising' the tank and i can fit the screw that way...

Now heres the thing... and i believe its a pretty important thing too

I havn't got a friggin clue on how to take the tank off my fireblade... My main concern is obviously dripping petrol all over the pavement and was wondering if you guys could shed some light

Is it a matter of undo'ing a few screws, or do you normally have to take all the bloody fairing off?

On the thundercat you just have to remove one bolt that's under the seat, back of the tank.

and another bolt just near the yoke.

don't have a clue how to do it on a blade..but might be similar

Ahh nice one JP,

I take it the hole in the bottom of the tank has somekind of tubing so the petrol doesn't just fall out?

I.e. i can just undo the bolt and lift it up a couple of inches? (call me stupid but i have to check!)

Your tank will hve 2 or 3 hoses, cant remember on the blade, one breather hose, and one or two fuel feed hoses. If you want the tnk completely off you need to clamp the feed hose(s) but you can leave the breather. Best bet is to just try nd lift the tnk up a bit and carfully twist it round so its facing the other way. Thats what i do on the ct, but be careful not to scratch the paintwork.

Ahh thanks Jimmy, muchly appreciated...

I think i only need to raise it a couple of inches to fit the screw but didn't have a clue what was underneath the tank!

just be glad you dont have a zzr, I lift the tank off and all that gives me access to is the airbox! need to take the tank and the airbox off before I get access to anything else.

If you just need a couple of inches of space I'd have thought you would have more than enough leeway in the tubing going to the tank - I have enough to prop it up where the seat would be.

If you need more space than that gives you the if your really lucky you might be able to switch the fuel tap off and disconnect from the tap while still leaving the tap connected to the tank - could do that on the guzzi but not on my zzr - thats progress for you...

I would turn the fuel tap to OFF anyway - just in case you do pop a hose off - last thing you want is to be holding the tank and need another hand to stop the petrol!!

Depending on what you need to acheive underneath it may be just as easy to take it off completely so that your hands are free - they can be pretty cumbersome to fiddle with - try to do it when the tank is less than half full too - take some weight off.

cant you just 'sew up' some contraption to lift the tank up??

















ok, i'll stop teasing you about it now...

On a large bike like that is the fuel not driven through a vacuum system? so if you take the tank off unless it is in prime position no fuel will come out of it anyway.
You can tell this by looking at the fuel tap, if there is an OFF position it doesn't work this way, if there is only PRI, RES, ON the it will be a vacuum system.

you shouldn't have to take the tank completely off just swivel it to access the vacuum pipe underneath at the back of the fuel tap. Tanks aren't held on by much either, usually only 1 or 2 bolts at the base by the seat and then it slides into the frame, this is because any maintenance you want to do you usually have to take the tank off.

yeah i had a bit play with a ZZR400 and all you get to see is the airbox and coils.. on that you could remove the two bolts at the front, then two of the four bolts at the back then tilt it up like a car bonnet leaving the tank propped up, suzukis even have a little tank prop under the seat for doing the same! you don't need to remove the fuel lines, a lot of modern sports bikes will do that but not sure about a blade
on FZR 400 and 600's what looks like the tank isn't! its just a cover, underneath is the real tank that looks like something off a lawn mower and a big air box

I don't have the same model Blade as you but this may help. Firstly, if working under the tank I personally would take it off. It's not a difficult job to do & will make any other work you have to do under the tank that much easier. On the RRX the process is as follows:
Remove two bolts at the rear of the tank.
Remove two bolts at the front of the tank.
Remove the fuel tap handle (small phillips screw in the hanle body).
Lift the tank from the rear , slide your and in & remove the pipes, 1 - fuel pipe from the tap, 2 - Vacuum pipe from the tap 3 - Fuel tank breather pipe. They can be a bit stilff to get off but if you don't get bloody knuckles working on your bike there's no sense of achievement at the end!!! Identifying the pipes to back on is pretty easy, they are different sizes & breather pipe will naturally be the right shape & in the right position to go back on.
Lift the tank off from the rear.

To not have to remove it competely you would have to remove the rear bolts, loosen the front bolts and you may have to remove the fuel tap handle to ensure it clears the frame (I'm not sure of the position on your model). Then lift from the rear as far as it will go. Don't force it too much in case any of the pipes are yanked off.

Removing fairing parts isn't required.

As I say, I have a different model to you but the process should be much the same. Hope this helps.

Thanks Noseyblade,
Thats pretty much what i ended up doing, the process is prety similar.

I ended up taking a few photo's of the cylinder head and sending them off to scottoiler asking them to point out the right screw... Never had so much trouble fitting a scottoiler before!

Either way, thanks a lot for the info