How to Remove the Charcoal Canister

[Guest JohnInNH]

I'm sure a few of you have done this, and before I get into it. I thought I'd ask here as it may save me some time by learning from you all here.

 

How DO you remove the Charcoal Canister and related tubing? Do you have to remove the gas tank? Tips pointers?

 

Thanks...

[al_roethlisberger]

Hi John,

 

Well, it's actually quite easy, although I'll have to do this from memory.

 

In a nutshell, no you don't have to do any major surgery, including removing the fuel-tank, to remove the evaporative/charcoal/emissions cannister.

 

In past V11 Sport applications, the cannisters were located under the seat, in the tool-tray area. This was a rather unfortunate location for those of us in States/Countries where this emission equipment was required.

 

But recent V11 Sport/LeMans/Scura's have relocated what were the dual cannisters under the seat, to a single cannister located between/under the the front of the rear tire/swingarm pivot/exhaust-x-over. Looking at a newer V11 from the side, you can see the black plastic cannister mounted in it's nickle-plate frame and kooky wire-tie hold-downs with the bracket.

 

Although this is certainly a more convenient location than under the seat, and we now have our tool-tray back.... the new location is less than attractive, and seems sorta kludgey.

 

So.... enough with the history.

 

How does/why does, it work? Well, you have a vent hose from the tank that goes down to the cannister. The cannister is supplied vacuum from the intake manifold/throttle-bodies. With the vacuum applied to the cannister/tank(via the vent line), gasoline vapors are reclaimed into the cannister, then sucked into the intake to be combusted, instead of vented directly to the atmosphere via your fuel-tank cap. Oh, and for the extra fuel that ends up condensing inside the cannister, there is an overflow/drain tube that drains to the pavement(make sure it doesn't drain onto your exhaust x-over.... potential fire hazard there).

 

 

OK, now back to the original question... how to remove this thing.

 

Easy, unbolt it, rip out the vacuum lines to the manifolds, cap the nipples with vacuum caps(or run a balance line between the two), and route the vent line from the tank under the bike, to vent/drain to the ground

 

It really is that simple!

 

 

Longer story.... well, the cannister's goofy "afterthought of a mouting bracket" is bolted in-line with the rubber grommet/bushing assembly that holds the OEM exhaust x-over in place. Unbolt that assembly, and remove the bracket holding the cannister. This bracket is attached to the U-shaped silver bracket holding the x-over with two bolts if I remember correctly.

 

At this point, I just cut the vent line and vacuum lines from the cannister, so I could leave the clamps on the cannister in case I ever wanted to put it back on... don't know why I would though.

 

Once you have the cannister physically unbolted from the exhaust x-over bracket, and cut/removed from the vacuum and vent lines... it should just come right off. You're done with that part now. Either toss it, or do as I did and put it in the "OEM LeMans Parts Bin" that I have started to amass

 

Now, you have two choices with the vacuum line as I mentioned. You can do as I did and just pull the 3-way line out of the bike entirely, and then cap the vacuum nipples on the throttle body with rubber vacuum caps, or you can run one vacuum line between them... although I don't know why one would. It shouldn't matter either way, and my capping the nipples hasn't had any adverse effects.

 

Finally, you are left with the vent line from the tank. Since bikes with the emissions cannisters have caps that don't vent, this line is still essential. Occassionally you will have gasoline vapor, and potentially some liquid fuel escape via this hose. So, I simply moved/rerouted the line forward a bit and lashed it to one of the oil-line fittings. It now drains/vents directly to the ground without any risk of venting/leaking onto my exhaust.

 

That's it....

 

Now one final point. Other than aesthetics, this modification will/should in no way affect the performance of your bike.... good or ill. If you remove the cannister and things don't run right, you've probably got a vacuum leak and/or pinched/plugged-up your vent line. Either condition could make the engine run poorly.

 

However, if you did everything right, you shouldn't notice anything "better" either, other than you've saved about 2 pounds of weight

 

Well, hope that helps...

 

al

[Guest JohnInNH]

Thanks Al...

 

That's what I thought, but wanted to make sure there was nothing up under the tank I had to do.

 

The canister rattles at a low RPM and slight load. Sounds wicked weird in the parking lot as I putt along. I wanted to get rid of it for the possibility of leaks, and the rattling.

 

I too have a pile of stock parts. Stock parts from my Miata, VW TDI, and the Le Mans. It's getting quite large, but necessary "Just In case"

 

John S. In SW NH