Petcock still leaks

The filters on the aftermarket petcocks can be a little too large to go directly into the tank. You might need to use a small file or a dremel to open the hole slightly - usually about 1 mm on each side.

Is that true of most aftermarket petcocks, or just the Pingels?

It is true for MOST aftermarket petcocks... you need to clean the hole up just a bit...

I think it is a benefit to have a single outlet petcock in that you only need one fuel filter set inline prior to the tee. A single outlet petcock of the style as shown can flow more than enough gas for any stock 900/1000 application. If you have a heavily modified bike, I suggest you use a premium petock and larger fuel lines. I also suggest you NEVER use a lawn mower filter (check flow rates vs car filters). Some folks use them but I am suspicious of the very low gas flow rates they are capable of.

Post edited by: wiredgeorge, at: 2005/12/14 09:04

I've got Jeff's petcocks and adaptor plates on both my bikes, 550 and 1000 and they work fantastic. Yes you do have to round the opening, but it really isn't a major deal. It's a good excuse to flush and clean your tank, which you probably should be doing anyway. Just screw on the adaptor plate and use a permanent marker to mark the tank where the hole needs to be larger, take it off and file off your marked area. Clean and flush your tank and you're ready to go.

Jeff's petcocks don't leak. It's real value for the money.

If your tank is rusty inside, see the writeup in the tutorials on cleaning rust out of the tank. I just did it last weekend. My tank was brown and scaley inside and now it's nice and silver. No new rust has started to form yet, which I attribute to the phosphoric acid treatment after the rust removal...

I don't know what comes in the rebuild kit so don't know what you replaced.

The rubber ring with the four holes in it needs to seal on the front and the back. There is a wavy spring that goes between the bit with the ports thats connected to the lever and the cover. If this spring has been flattened it won't seal. If there is clearance between the rubber ring and either face, it won't seal. If there is a hole in the diaphragm, it will leak through the other side but you'll know because you'll get gas in your mouth when you suck through the vacuum line. The rubber diaphram also needs to seal so there can't be any clearance here. If the spring on the back side is weak, it won't seal. If there's crud on any of this stuff, it won't seal. If you scored any of the faces, it won't seal.

You can convert the vacuum petcock to a on, res, off version by plugging one of the port holes. I am not looking at one at the moment, but IIRC it would be the bottom hole in the body.

-Duck

I was messing around with the old petcock off my kz1000 the other night and just for grins I pulled out the spring and trimmed a piece of vacuum hose somewhere around 3/8" long and put it in place of the spring. I made it just long enough to put a little pressure on the valve to keep it closed. Screwed it back together and now the "ON" position is "OFF" and the "PRI" position is "ON". IIRC the "RES" position is also "OFF".
I think it would work, but I couldn't decide whether or not the PRI position pulled gas from the RES port so if not, it would never let you know when you were low on gas... Otherwise, it might be another mod for a non vacuum petcock...

Word of caution! Doug made reference to using his petcock to tell him when he was running low on gas. In other words, driving on ON till it ran out then shifting over to RESERVE. This SOUNDS like a plan except the petcock pictured on Jeff's site looks suspiciously like the Drag Specialties petcock I bought at a local Harley shop. I had the idea to find out EXACTLY how far I could go till I hit reserve so, while I was still riding to San Antonio everyday to work... well, I decided to run out of gas then flick it to reserve and get some gas at the next filling station I came to. I was out on Galm road when the event took place... the bike ran out of gas and I shifted to RESERVE.... well Galm Road is about 6-7 miles long I reckon and I ran out about half way. Nearest station is about another mile past the end of Galm Road. Well, I found out WITH MY RESERVE, I could get about 3 miles. I ended up pushing the darn KZ over 1 mile to the Diamond Shamrock on the corner of Loop 1604 and Portranco Road. Luckily it was real warm out and I got a chance to clear my pores some... I also recall that there was gas in the tank that couldn't be used on either ON or RESERVE as I didn't have a drop of gas to run but I think the tank is supposed to hold 4.2 gallons and I could only get 3.8 gallons in it when I filled it up. You could also hear a litttttle bit of gas still sloshing... Moral of story? Take a quart of gas with you when you try and figure out how far you can go in the ON position as the RESERVE on my petcock doesn't hold much at all... BTW: I didn't have sediment or dirt covering the bottom. The tank innards were VERY clean.

Can you pull the screen off and mill down the reserve tube to shorten it a bit?

Obviously you'd want to be very careful about metal shavings...

My KZ1000 has a guage on it (whatever that's worth) but I don't know how accurate it is. Even then, I have a tendancy to want to get gas when I get over 90 miles on the trip meter. I've never looked to see what the tank capacity is.
I did run out on purpose on my 550 once. Sounds like I might have gotten lucky that I made it to a gas station about 4 miles down the road...on reserve... Don't think I'd want to push that KZ1000 that far! even in the cold!

Do they make it that way on purpose so you don't have the dregs in the bottom of the tank pulled into your fuel system? Assuming there are dregs in the bottom of the tank... (let me rephrase that: Kaw assumes you will have dregs in the bottom of your tank...)

Post edited by: fergyfer, at: 2005/12/14 15:10

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Post edited by: hwms, at: 2005/12/14 19:23

Anyone got a '77 KZ650B1, that they've updated with an aftermarket petcock?
I can do the whole deal on Z1Enterprises for less than 40 bucks, but I have a concern: I understand I will have to open the hole to allow for the 3/8"NPT fitting (protruding thru the mounting plate). But the original center hole on my gas tank is a slot, measuring 24mm x 9mm(.965" x .360"). The original petcock itself is only 22mm(7/8") wide. The reason I'm concerned is that the mounting area on the tank matches the plate, in size; thereforeI can't go too wide with the hole, or there will be very little gasket on either side of it when assembled.
From what I gathered online, a 3/8" NPT thread measures .675" across, which is roughly 5 and a half eights of an inch. If correct, that would leave me slightly more than 1/8" of gasket area on either side of the (modified) hole. Am I correct?

Post edited by: Wild & KZ Guy, at: 2006/03/26 20:56