Leak at 1000 petcock

I have a leak at my fuel petcock on a part I can't find on the kawasaki.com diagram. When you look at the petcock straight on its this elbowed joint that comes of the petcock and supplies the fuel to the carbs. I pulled it out to look at it and it doesn't look like it is supposed to accomodate any oring or anything, just supposed to be tight fitted. Anyone out ther ever had to fiddle with this leak on an 81 CSR or LTD 1000 and any bikes that may have the same setup.

this is the pic I was supposed to put on

I had all kinds of problems getting my OEM vacuum petcock to seal off the flow of gas when the bike was shut off. It didn't leak externally but overnight it would leak a cup of gas or more into the airbox via the carb overflows. After several rebuild kits and no solution, I switched to a pingel manual petcock that mounts right to my bike with an aluminum adapter plate. I had to plug the vacuum line coming from the carb and had to file the hole in the bottom of the tank slightly, but other than that i'm very happy with the conversion.
Grant.
P.S. I now have to turn the gas on and off manually which I'm finally getting the hang of.

I had all kinds of problems getting my OEM vacuum petcock to seal off the flow of gas when the bike was shut off. It didn't leak externally but overnight it would leak a cup of gas or more into the airbox via the carb overflows. After several rebuild kits and no solution, I switched to a pingel manual petcock that mounts right to my bike with an aluminum adapter plate. I had to plug the vacuum line coming from the carb and had to file the hole in the bottom of the tank slightly, but other than that i'm very happy with the conversion.
Grant.
P.S. I now have to turn the gas on and off manually which I'm finally getting the hang of.

Yes, I've seen gas seep out of this connection before. I just started pressing it in really, really hard when I install it, giving it a bit of an extra twist as I press it in. It seems to work.

Another idea would be to wrap a little teflon around the plug before you shove it into the petcock.

Thanks Inline! That sounds doable, but today I used some silicone around it, just a light coat seeing that it was a pretty close fit and left it to dry. Didn't ride it all day, probably tomorow. I rode my SR today and left that bike to heal( changed valve cover gasket and cam plugs, plus that thing at the petcock

Like inline79 says press it in really hard. I did that and then put JB Weld around the join and that has worked fine for the past two years.

Grantl wrote:

I had all kinds of problems getting my OEM vacuum petcock to seal off the flow of gas when the bike was shut off. It didn't leak externally but overnight it would leak a cup of gas or more into the airbox via the carb overflows. After several rebuild kits and no solution...

Perhaps a bit after the fact in this instance, but worth mentioning anyway:

Seepage is a pretty common problem on auto petcocks, and the little rubber diaphram is usually the culprit - age, wear, etc., but another item that requires attention is the spring that presses against the diaphram.



The spring presses against the diaphram to shut off fuel flow when the engine shuts down. Age and cyclic wear can reduce the tension the spring places on the diaphram.

So even after a rebuild, new diaphram and all, (can't recall if the rebuild kits include a new spring) unless you stretch the spring *ever so slightly* it's possible that the real problem remains - lack of spring tension.

Found that out myself the hard way...

I've had the problem before. Put a little JB weld on the tube and press it together. That will make a permanent repair of the problem. Also replace the fuel line while you're at it if it's old. It's surprising how deceptive a dumb fuel line leak where it plugs into the petcock can be, sometimes you can swear up and down by looking closely it's the elbo leaking, where in fact it's the rubber line.

I sealed it with RTV sealer, but when I rode it this morning I smelt gas and when I looked down at the engine it was just flowing gas. I thought it was that connection again but it looked like a lamb, quiet as ever. The gas was coming from the filter. I thought the filter was broke til I went to the store to buy a new one , to only find out the hose clamp needed tightening. I still changed it anyways, since it was old. Thanks fellas! Case closed!