Billet Fuel Cap on GS with keyless ride?

Looks nice.

Regarding the vent tubes... One is for allowing runoff if you overfill the tank or splash fuel around the lip of the filler neck. So unless that is something that happens to you frequently, I wouldn't be concerned. The second is the expansion overflow drain/vent, and allows fumes to escape when the fuel expands, and if overfilled when it's cool allows fuel to be pushed out of the tank in a controlled manner. The thin tubes should be fine for both of these needs. Both should end up near or below the bottom of the bike away from the exhaust.

Just don't fill it to the brim, and you should be fine - leave an inch (or two) air gap at the top.

I’m pretty sure filling to the brim leads to the charcoal canisters being saturated.
OM

More information. While cleaning up I discovered there were some instructions. The gas cap came in a small flat rate box that was inside a large flat rate bubble envelope. The instructions were in the envelope and I missed them. The instructions are for an installation on a K1600 and the OE fuel cap and supporting assembly is different than on the GSA.

On the K1600 it says to reuse a ring that has a red vacuum fitting (see picture) that is where the vapor capture tube attaches. That ring cannot be reused on the GSA. I’m not sure if omitting the red fitting will cause problems.



The instructions say to use shrink tubing to affix a vacuum fitting to the smaller tubing on the new gas cap. The fitting can then be used to attach the new tubing to the OE tubing. I have not yet done that.

I did figure out that I could reuse a part of the support assembly of the OE cap. This piece has the minting points for the nuts for the screws inside the storage compartment on the GSA.



The instructions specifically say the expansion tube cannot be re used. I did find that the tube will fit thru the top of the new cap. Not sure if it will do any good in this position or if it will affect the seal of the screw-in fuel cap.

akbeemer said:

I did find that the tube will fit thru the top of the new cap. Not sure if it will do any go in this position or if it will affect the seal of the screw-in fuel cap.

Click to expand...

Check the o-ring position on the cap - if it seats against the inner bevel, the tube is in the way. If it seats closer to the edge of the flat area, it might be OK, as long as it is able to make tight contact with that surface.

Does the screw in cap have a o ring that makes contact outside of the expansion tube?

Lee said:

Does the screw in cap have a o ring that makes contact outside of the expansion tube?

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No. The o’ring is on the bottom of the body of the structure where it mates with the gas tank. When the cap screws in it is metal to metal.

Edit: where the screw in portion of the gas cap seats against the bottom of the hole it is metal to metal. There is an o’ring at the upper lid of the cap.

I attached vacuum connectors to the 1/8” hoses as described in the K1600 instructions.

akbeemer said:

More information. While cleaning up I discovered there were some instructions. The gas cap came in a small flat rate box that was inside a large flat rate bubble envelope. The instructions were in the envelope and I missed them. The instructions are for an installation on a K1600 and the OE fuel cap and supporting assembly is different than on the GSA.

On the K1600 it says to reuse a ring that has a red vacuum fitting (see picture) that is where the vapor capture tube attaches. That ring cannot be reused on the GSA. I’m not sure if omitting the red fitting will cause problems.

Click to expand...

Did you completely discard the piece pictured?
I'm not clear on what part you save.

akbeemer said:

I attached vacuum connectors to the 1/8” hoses as described in the K1600 instructions.

]

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I/8" inside diameter connector was used?
This slips over the metal stub on the new cap and slips inside the existing rubber hoses?

Looks like this assembly needs to be removed from the tank to remove the ring with the red connector.
Is this correct?


Do you keep the short section of the expansion tube that's still attached in the above picture.

Lee,

Sorry I missed your questions. Thank you for the nudge. So far I've been on one 120 mile ride and one refueling with the cap installed; no issues. The SWMotech tank ring functioned as normal and there is no odor or other sign of leakage. My GSA has a small storage compartment just forward of the fuel cap on top of the tank. When I refueled I opened that compartment and laid the cap in there, otherwise fueling was routine.

Did you completely discard the piece pictured? I'm not clear on what part you save. Your supporting structure under the fuel cap is different than mine. I did not use the part with red valve in it and mine does not have the bridge like piece that your fingers are on in your picture. The pieces I retained are shown in the picture below. The plastic ring fits under the part with the red valve on my bike and provides some attachment points for the center panel that are inside of the small storage compartment mentioned above. The expansion tube is sitting in the tank. The instructions call for it to be discarded, but I used it.



Looks like this assembly needs to be removed from the tank to remove the ring with the red connector. Is this correct? Do you keep the short section of the expansion tube that's still attached in the above picture. Hard for me to tell if it all is to be discarded since the bridge like structure is not on my bike and I do not know its function. Certainly the portion with the red valve had to go on my bike.

I retained the lower portion of the expansion tube. As shown in my picture above, it will not go thru the hole in the tank. By removing 2 mm in the diameter of the flange stopping it from going thru the hole it would fit inside of the o'ring that seals the new cap to the tank; there is a bit of a recess there.

1/8" inside diameter connector was used? This slips over the metal stub on the new cap and slips inside the existing rubber hoses? The instructions call for building up the outside diameter of the new hoses coming off the new fuel cap assembly by using a couple of layers of shrink tubing, then using an additional piece off shrink tube to attach one end of the connector to the hose. The other end of the connector fits inside the OE hoses with effort. I had to trim both the new and old hoses to get everything to fit where it needs to be.

Thanks for the reply. I had taken for granted the GS gas cap assemble was the same as the RS and R.
I was confused because your pictures did not show the bridge assemble holding the gas cap.
Because of the different tank covers the two are slightly different.

It got all the way up to 50 in the garage today so I decided to change the keyless cap on Debbie's bike with a Billet cap I bought form Pirate.
I had the tank covers off and was having trouble getting the air snorkel out of the way of the electrical connector when I decided to skip that for the moment and lift the gas cap.



When I removed the piece circled in red I realized I could open and close the cap.
I put the tank center back on and I could still remove that piece.



I showed this to Debbie and we decided to keep the keyless cap for now and see how it works on the next trip.
If the keyless cap sticks shut we would not be stranded because it's easy to remove that small piece.
She does have a tank ring but that's easy to remove.
When arthritis gets in her hands she was concerned she would have trouble turning the billet caps because there's not much to grip.
We'll see how it goes when we head to Texas in a few weeks.

We had trouble in Colorado last year but after spraying the plunger a few times with a lock lube it was better.
We did not have any problems with it for a week in Arkansas after the Colorado trip.

This is the plunger I sprayed with lock lube.

Lee, after reading several threads about that plunger becoming problematic, I've set to manually moving the plunger every so often in the hopes of catching a future problem before it becomes one.

RE: 03-28-2021, 09:33 PM #53 Lee

10-4. My 2016 R 1200 R has developed the same fuel filler cap problem. Won't open.

I discussed with tech at dealer, he said it is a known problem. He said they can adjust it; if that doesn't work, replace it. Next time I'm in for service, I'll have them adjust it (whatever that means). If that doesn't work, I'd just as soon have them put in a non-locking cap, if available. I won't have another keyless cap put in.

Meanwhile, I keep a quarter-inch drive wrench with a T-25 key ready to loosen that plate over the latch you circled. Lid will open with the screws up and a slight pry on the plate. Doesn't take long. But it does give me range anxiety out on the road.

Has anyone had the dealer replace the keyless cap?

Now isn't unnecessary technology fluff just wonderful. Useful tech like fuel injection, ABS, traction control, LED lighting etc is great , but some of the stuff they insist on putting on motorcycles is just awful. YMMV

40dcoe said:

RE: 03-28-2021, 09:33 PM #53 Lee

10-4. My 2016 R 1200 R has developed the same fuel filler cap problem. Won't open.

I discussed with tech at dealer, he said it is a known problem. He said they can adjust it; if that doesn't work, replace it. Next time I'm in for service, I'll have them adjust it (whatever that means). If that doesn't work, I'd just as soon have them put in a non-locking cap, if available. I won't have another keyless cap put in.

Meanwhile, I keep a quarter-inch drive wrench with a T-25 key ready to loosen that plate over the latch you circled. Lid will open with the screws up and a slight pry on the plate. Doesn't take long. But it does give me range anxiety out on the road.

Has anyone had the dealer replace the keyless cap?

Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see what they adjust. Maybe they plan to make sure all the screws are evenly snug.
Ask them if the keyed gas cap swap will work.
Ask if the lock can be disabled so you can open the cap by lifting the tab without using the fob.

An update on my billet cap, now that I have some miles on it.

It is performing as designed. It has never leaked and the cap comes off easily. I do have to place the cap somewhere while fueling. On the GSA there is a small compartment just forward of the fuel cap and even with the batteries I carry in it, there is space to hold the cap while fueling. I do not find removing the cap overly taxing . The threads on the cap are very fine and sometimes I have to fuss with it to get the threads to mate. This can take as long as 30 seconds or so, but I seem to be getting better at it. With the OE cap I sometimes had to fuss with getting it locked shut and more than once rode off thinking it was latched when it was not; that is less likely with the billet cap.

akbeemer said:

The threads on the cap are very fine and sometimes I have to fuss with it to get the threads to mate. .

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I was surprised to see they used very fine threads on the billet cap.

We decided to replace the gas caps on both of our bikes.
Cost about $40,000.

Lee said:

We decided to replace the gas caps on both of our bikes.
Cost about $40,000.

Click to expand...

om