Harley-Davidson Motor Company has issued a recall for its entry-level Street 750 and Street 500 motorcycles. This recall potentially affects the 10,580 units manufactured between January 20, 2014 through June 24, 2015 in the U.S., and February 24, 2014 through July 15, 2015 in Bawal, India.
The recall has been issued to replace a faulty fuel pump module installed on the motorcycles. These pumps use a poor seal at the fuel inlet, which could fail, causing an interruption in the fuel supply to the engine. This leads to a brief ‘hesitation’ in power delivery under acceleration when the fuel level is low. According to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA, this can happen when the fuel level is below three litres, even before the low fuel indicator light comes on.
The retaining feature which holds the fuel pump pick up to the fuel pump inlet may not maintain the necessary hydraulic seal. Once the inlet seals again, the hesitation may be followed by an abrupt restoration in power, and subsequently causing loss of control over the motorcycle and possibly a crash.
Harley-Davidson is taking steps to fix this issue free of charge for all owners with motorcycles from the affected batch. As a precautionary measure, the bike manufacturer has issued letters to owners requesting them to fuel up their tanks, and not ride any further than 160km without fuelling up again. They have also advised their dealers all over the world to sell, but not deliver these models to new customers unless they have been checked for the issue.
Harley-Davidson India, meanwhile, issued a circular saying, “Harley-Davidson confirms that it has voluntarily recalled model year 2015 Harley-Davidson Street family vehicles, of which the XG750 model is available in India. We identified that some of the motorcycles may have a poor seal at the fuel pump inlet, and have announced the recall in the interest of customer safety. We are committed to correcting this issue and are working with our dealers in India to notify customers and request them to bring their motorcycles in for inspection."
Azaman Chothia
Vishal Venugopal
