Motorcycle Repair: Yamaha xj600s fuel, local bike shop, petrol station

Question
Hi Chris i have twice run out of fuel on a fast carriageway late at night. Well its your thought i hear you say well thats what i thought too. The first time i was so put out that i took the bike to a local bike shop to check the fuel tap out. Reason when the bike started to sputter i switched it to reserve @ 240 miles and promptly travelled 200yards then it died and would not start. I was told that it probably was dirt or dirty fuel and me putting in 5 ltrs of fuel was insidental. The second time would you believe it almost same place just the other carriage way. Exactly the same thing happened no reserve again. Annoyingly i had done 183 miles and was going to fuel up at the next petrol station which was in 3 miles. I have drained the tank out taken the fuel cock apart to check the filter. Poured 2 ltrs of fuel back into tank and started the bike with tap set to on and let it run till it started to sputter then turned to reserve. Guess what it ran for 10secs then died and when i looked in the tank it was completely empty. What is going on? Is it possible the tap is not right ie is reserve position and on position reversed.

Answer
Hi Hypo.
Have you tried a fuel petcock rebuild kit or replacing the fuel petcock?  It is possible that the petcock is worn out and just not working right any longer.  There are only 2 ways to test that theory and they are to;

1) rebuild the petcock and see what happens, or

2) replace the petcock with a known good one and see what happens.

There is another possibility, as dumb as it sounds, get the manual out and research it to be sure that you haven't had the petcock position backwards all this time.  I know it sounds stupid, but it can happen, even to the best of us.

Good luck and ride safe.
FALCON