Rebuilt Petcock, super tight

1982 KZ750 H. Had my carbs overflow into the case and ruin the oil. One of the fixes I am doing is rebuilding the vacuum petcock with a K&L rebuild kit. Took the petcock apart and the diaphragm was ripped, hence why the overflow. The rebuild is easy enough to do but I ran into an issue. The o ring that fits around the handle assembly is a really tight fit in the petcock body. As in its so tight its difficult to get the handle into the body and it makes it almost impossible to rotate the lever when the handle is in.

Any tricks to massage it into a better fit? I have heard about maybe using petroleum jelly? Old o ring ripped when it was removed so no go in re-using that one.

A light coat of grease should do it.
Steve

Lever (round surface) has to be sanded step by step with last sandpaper grade 1000 or 2000.
Round rubber gasket has a lip, it goes toward tank.

Probably too large of diameter oring in the kit. Most likely the part is still available from Kawasaki.

Called up the local metric dealer and got the O ring ordered from the manufacturer-- Its going to break me at a whopping $3

just in case anyone comes across this same issue the part number from Kawasaki is 92055-1027 and it is still available

car5car wrote: Lever (round surface) has to be sanded step by step with last sandpaper grade 1000 or 2000.
Round rubber gasket has a lip, it goes toward tank.

Huh?

car5car wrote: Lever (round surface) has to be sanded step by step with last sandpaper grade 1000 or 2000.
Round rubber gasket has a lip, it goes toward tank.

Yep, sand the surface smooth on a flat surface. A piece of glass works. I also flatten all the sealing surfaces. Use fuel resistant grease on the face and the o-ring.

Huh?

Pretty good petcock rebuild write-up.
www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=206...ight=petcock+rebuild

ThatGPzGuy wrote: Pretty good petcock rebuild write-up.
www.xs650.com/forum/showthread.php?t=206...ight=petcock+rebuild

Nice tutorial !!
Pete

Ok, after reading that tutorial it makes much more sense.

I had the same problem when I rebuilt mine about 2 years ago. As the bikes still not on the road yet,I havent got round to sorting it out. Will get to it soon though so let us know how yours works out and if the O-ring sorts it (and/or the sanding). I did grease mine but it didnt make much difference.