'76 KZ400 Petcock Problems

Got a lot of work done on the little KZ yesterday: took it from running to non-running with a brief stop at running better.

I'll ask about my charging problems in electrical, but the biggest problem I ran into yesterday was fuel flow. (Actually, the lack of fuel flow. )

It was backfiring, then stalling when I tried to rev. I looked at the petcock today & discovered that the rubber inside is in bad shape.

I have o-rings, but what I need is the 4-hole rubber thingy, er, gasket, that goes between the tap handle & the body of the petcock. (P/N 92065-099) Jeff can get 'em, but it'll take a week or more. Ron Ayers has 'em, but it takes them a week to get anything from their warehouse to the shipper, plus I refuse to pay $8 to ship a tenth of an ounce of rubber. :blink: Local dealers don't have 'em either, & eBay's out of stock.

So, I can get one, but not quickly. I want it now, so I'm thinking about making one. I can use the old one for a pattern, but I don't know what to make it out of. I have some old bicycle tubes around, but I'm not sure they're fuel resistant. Anybody got any suggestions, or should I just suck it up & ask Jeff to order me one?

Thanks,
-Kit

ill stick extra gas tank in box with other stuff going out to ya,give me a few days. goodluck,happy wrenching!

Kit,

It's made of an unusually thick gasket material, the local auto parts store might have something, but I don't know. I know I bought a pack of gasket material and it was all too thin.

I had a bud get mine redone at a marine engine repair shop, I imagine any engine rebuilding place could do it, though they'd probably charge.

George

Thanks again for the care package!!!

For this problem, though, I wonder if it's not mostly about the age of the rubber? I'm still curious as to where to get the right kind of rubber to fabricate one of these...

-Kit

Thanks, George. I'll look at engine rebuilders, there must be a few around here.

Cheers,
-Kit

Duh.

Thanks again, Wireman! I just found the petcock at the bottom of box #1.

-Kit

The petcock Wireman sent me is a little different from the one on my tank, & the gasket wouldn't quite fit. However, I have fixed my problem, at least for a while: I flipped the gasket over so the unworn side faces out. Turning the tap no longer pulls chunks of rubber off of it, & it doesn't seem to drip either. (Now that it's back together. Somebody want to remind me why I put more fuel in before replacing that gasket?)

Cheers,
-Kit

I've got a '76 D3, and I've had the same problem with the petcock...I've got mine jury-rigged at the moment with some 1/4" cork...and I DO mean jury-rigged...the 1/4" wasn't quite thick enough, so in order to get close the the roughly 3/16" that I need I made two copies of the rubber one, and sliced one in half, and put it in back. I have some rubber on order and I'm going to try and make several replacements...As soon as thats done, I plan on offering a few of 'em up and see how they work. I'll keep everyone posted.