As previously mentioned, I'm waiting on a new fuel pump for my Ducati. Unfortunately, I've noticed that one of the two wires that lead from the low-fuel sensor to the fuel pump was scraped while being removed/reinserted, such that there is a small area of exposed wire.

Mind you, this is INSIDE my gas tank. I keep envisioning a low fuel tank, exposed wire above the liquid gas in all that gas vapor, just waiting for a chance to make a spark. In my imagination, this never ends well.

How can I fix the wire? What happens to heat-shrink tubing when immersed in gasoline indefinitely? Forget about electrical tape; that stuff sucks almost anywhere. There isn't really enough room to put a crimp-type electrical connector on it, because there isn't much room when reinserting it into the tank (which is why the insulation got scraped off in the first place).

Someone on the Monster forum suggested Liquid Tape, but the technical document for it states that it has "limited" resistance to petroleum.

You guys have any suggestions?

Gasoline is a bitch. Chances are the wire is insulated with a gasoline resistant coating. I would explore completely replacing the wire with the OEM part. I don't think any heat shrink or other solutions will provide you the safety/longevity you're looking for.

And ethanol is a solvent so that complicates the mix.

Replacing the wire altogether could be a problem, as it's stripped right near where it comes out of the low-fuel sensor. I'm sure that replacing that whole unit would be expensive - and I'm on a budget for the time being.

I believe that here in BC our gas is between five and ten percent ethanol.

I just need to make sure the damn thing doesn't spark, right? It's hard to call it overkill when you're talking about electrical components inside your gas tank, but it's just a teensy wire with a rather small area of insulation exposed.

That said, there was a local guy who once had his much newer Monster burst into flames on him just as he was pulling into a gas station. Having trouble getting that image out of my mind for some reason...

You may need to search for some specialty heat shrink that can withstand the corrosive nature of gasoline. There has to be some solution available somewhere.

Under no circumstances would I use normal heat shrink or liquid electrical tape. I fear it would just dissolve which would be bad for your engine. (Do an experiment and dip some tape in gasoline and you'll see what I mean. It eats through it wicked quick.)

I got an email from a lurker, my friend Jeff who runs a cabling business. He did some research, made a few phone calls and came up with this product:

Product – Permatex Motoseal Part # 29132
Permatex Tech Support -- 1-877-376-2839



Available through NAPA and AutoZone, most likely special order.

Might be worth a call to talk to them.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

Here's a picture of the unit. You can see the small area of exposed wire near the end of my finger. It's not much, but it's the sitting in gas and gas vapor that has me wondering.

yea, that would make me nervous too although being black I'm guessing it's a ground wire.

To verify that it's appropriate for the application I would give the permatex guys a call before attempting any fix. You want to make sure you get the right product that can handle a gasoline environment.

This also popped up in a Mustang forum:


I've heard good things about McMaster Car...

Thanks, Mike! They do list a "fuel-resistant elastomer" heat shrink tubing that comes in an appropriate size.

If I were in the States, I'd order it right now, but shipping across the border can take a LONG time; I wonder if there's any chance of finding that kind of thing locally.

This is strange - McMaster Carr will not ship to Canada. Why the hell not?

Buying things online in the States is SO much easier.

Has this been resolved? McMaster Carr is very good. I've done business with them extensively when I was a manufacturing engineer. Why doesn't one of us in the lower 48 simply buy what you need and ship it to you in an envelope? You could buy it and have it shipped to me and I will send out to you.

Thanks for the offer! No, the issue is not resolved yet. I just got my replacement parts yesterday (fuel pump and nut for the low-fuel sensor), so it would be nice to put things back together. I've been really busy, unfortunately, but will make some phone calls and/or visits tomorrow to local folks who might know if there is something available locally.

Actually, there's no reason why I can't put everything back together as is, fill the tank, and at least see if I've fixed the problem I had before. Draining and removing the tank is a hassle, but it's not as bad as doing that PLUS removing the fuel pump and filter from the tank. Also, I'm torn, because it's seems rather unlikely that a spark could happen, given the miniscule bit of exposed wire. If I only knew why that other fellow's bike burst into flames... maybe it was something completely different.

I'll report back after talking to some folks tomorrow.

This thread came up in conversation today, so I thought I'd follow up.

After hemming and hawing, I re-installed the low fuel sensor with its slightly exposed wire, thinking that the chance of a spark was very small, and I have not been proven wrong, so that's good.

Also, there was never anything wrong with my fuel pump to begin with!  I had a broken wire in my wiring harness.  At some point, after doing some work on the bike, I zip-tied the wiring harness to the frame too tightly.  When the handlebars were turned all the way to the left, the wiring harness was under too much stress and the undersized wire that broke inside its insulation was the wire that powers the fuel pump.  Many thanks to Savage Cycles for finding and fixing that!  They figured out that the fuel pump problem only manifested itself when the bars were turned, such as when turning left from a stop (or pulling out of my driveway).

Happy Trails.

Ian Do you have a link for Savage Cycles?

That'd be   of Victoria, BC.




 Thanks to Alex and Mike for helping me out.

Have you thought about contacting Ducati (corporate) about this? This appears to be one of those safety type things that they should be concerned with, particularly since it looks to be a safety related defect in their part. A friendly letter with a picture pointing it out might get you a new one.

It's not exactly a defect in the part, as I accidentally scraped the wire while removing the low-fuel sensor from the tank, causing that small portion of insulation to come off.  It's an unfortunate design, though, since until you remove it you wouldn't know that it would be so easy to damage the wire in taking it out.  The edge of the hole/threads in the tank was sharper than expected.
 

You can use a Diesel resistant heat shrink that is DR-25 - I know it is used by formula one etc.. and racing cars...
 

Thanks for the link!