Fuel filler cap

[Duncan]

Hi, I went to fill the bike with petrol this morning and the filler cap won't open. The key goes in, turns, but the cap doesn't open. Has any body come across this before? I tried unbolting the whole cap, but you need the cap open to remove it. Any ideas? TIA

[Hooli]

Are you pressing down as you turn the key?

Mine has always needed a bit of pressure on the front of the cap to get the key to turn the full 90 degrees, other wise the pressure from the seal lifting the cap jams the retaining bit of the lock out.

[Duncan]

Yeh I tried that. The key turns a full 90 degrees but it still won't open

[Hooli]

Ahh bugger then!

I'd think you'd need to unscrew the whole thing as you've tried before & force it up from the back, I don't know another way to get into them. But then I've never had a problem with mine to need to try.

[KiwiCol]

Geez!  that'd be very inconvenient, especially so if you were away touring.

[Duncan]

Kiwicol, do you mean, unscrew the whole cap and force it out? Normally the cap has to be unlocked and open to remove the whole cap

[Will14]

It may be worth spraying some WD40/Plusgas into the lock and working the key for a while, spray a bit more and leave over night and hope for the best. What ever you do dont damage the tank as they are getting up towards the £1000 mark new now 

[DP1400]

Sounds like the internals of the lock are not aligning correctly with the turn of the key. If the WD40 combined with a fiddle with the key trick doesn`t work why not try a lock pick? Thinking outside of the box, if I were you i`d call a professional locksmith and get an opinion - desperate measures and all that.....

[BlueDragon]

I think Hooli was referring to go from under the tank.  remove the fuel pump etc and you should be able to get to the underside of the cap and use a long screw driver to perhaps push the lock tabs back into the housing which will then let you lift up the cap. Hope that makes sense.

[Kiwifruit]

OK silly question.....have you tried your spare key?
Remove pump as said, turn your key 90° put downward pressure on the cap and push the front tab of the cap in. The rear one is fixed and does not move.
Failing that you may be able to get those two screws out.

Warning....there is some tiny shit inside that cap, ball bearing, spring....stuff
(mine is much lighter after loosing them)

[Will14]

OK silly question.....have you tried your spare key?
You may be able to drop those two screws out if you take the pump out.

Spare key is a very good call

Be careful as you go with these screws, they look like cheap JIS screw heads which will round off easily with a standard pozi screwdriver

[grog]

ZHeF1aoKQKo

[Duncan]

I got it sorted. Thanks for all the replies. The key was turning and unlocking,  but the cap was still catching on something that was stopping it from opening. I took the screws out around the cap. Once the screws are out you can wiggle the cap out.Once it was out I couldn't see any corrosion or any other reason why it could of stuck. I covered the whole thing in wd40 and put it back in. Working no problem now.👍

[Hooli]

Easy fixes are the best ones.

[Will14]

ZHeF1aoKQKo

Good find Grog, I wonder how many of us will be cleaning fuel tank caps this weekend