Manual petcock lever

Manual (non-vacuum) petcock drawings in the manuals are sometimes incomplete because they don't show the separate cone-shaped part, spring and handle. Here's an example, where it looks like the handle/spring/cone is all a single component:





But here's a Picasso revealing the real truth of the matter, three separate components, being a handle, a spring and a cone.



The cone is made of some sort of plastic or nylon or other type of non-metallic substance that fits snugly and precisely into the main petcock body. The cone has holes in it and turns inside the main petcock body to align with different holes in the main petcock body to produce fuel flow through the petcock in various positions of the handle (i.e., OFF, ON and REServe).

The spring serves to maintain slight pressure holding the cone snugly inside the main petcock body to keep fuel flowing only through the aligned holes and not around the outside of the cone.

When dirt or crud gets inside the petcock so as to scratch the cone, the petcock will leak. I've had no success in trying various methods to remove scratches in the cone or otherwise attempting to restore a scratched cone (for instance, using rubbing compound was a failure). I eventually surrendered and just bought a new petcock.

More pics:













Good Fortune!

Whuzzup with the petcock in that last pic??? :pinch: :blink: :blink:

Here's some more about the cone -- from distant memory:



These images refer mostly to the 1976 KZ900-B LTD stock manual petcock. Manual petcocks on other models will likely have differences. I'm not familiar will the internals of all stock Kawasaki manual petcocks, some of which may not have the same component parts.

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The aftermarket petcocks seem to be of less quality than OEM.
Steve


kzrider.com/forum/3-carburetor/601369-mi...rbs?start=140#752973

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Here's a screenshot from the video of the infamous cone:



Am uncertain of the correct part name for the cone.

And the internet isn't exactly crawling with pics of it either.

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The aftermarket one isn't an exact copy of the OEM one. The two pins that go into the cone are in different places. My new one started to fail in the first year. The OEM one I bought in 97. It has a bent lever from being dropped, that's why I bought the new one. I put the old one back on and it works better than the new one ever did. I'm disappointed in the quality of aftermarket parts.
Steve

Patton wrote: Manual (non-vacuum) petcock drawings in the manuals are sometimes incomplete because they don't show the separate cone-shaped part, spring and handle. Here's an example, where it looks like the handle/spring/cone is all a single component:

Buts here's a Picasso revealing the real truth of the matter, three separate components, being a handle, a spring and a cone.

The cone is made of some sort of plastic or nylon or other type of non-metallic substance that fits snugly and precisely into the main petcock body. The cone has holes in it and turns inside the main petcock body to align with different holes in the main petcock body to produce fuel flow through the petcock in various positions of the handle (i.e., OFF, ON and REServe).

The spring serves to maintain slight pressure holding the cone snugly inside the main petcock body to keep fuel flowing only through the aligned holes and not around the outside of the cone.

When dirt or crud gets inside the petcock so as to scratch the cone, the petcock will leak. I've had no success in trying various methods to remove scratches in the cone or otherwise attempting to restore a scratched cone (for instance, using rubbing compound was a failure). I eventually surrendered and just bought a new petcock.

More pics:

Good Fortune!

Hi Patton,
You're probably aware that the petcock depicted in the 1973 schematic drawing is the old-style original design that used a rubber sleeve over a hollow cylindrical "peg" that was the part of the tap lever that rotated inside the body of the petcock. Every old-style petcock we ever saw began leaking eventually because the rubber sleeve deteriorated, and we wer never able to find replacement sleeves. Honestly, looking at the original design we don't understand how they didn't leak when new.

The new design with the cylindrical nylon cone seems much more robust. Kawasaki PN# 51023-1021 is a cone-type design, and is a direct replacement for the original Z-1/A/B petcocks. We transitioned all of our Z-1's to # 51023-1021 a long time ago. Don't know for sure on what bike # 51023-1021 originated, but it looks identical to the '76 KZ-900B LTD in the illustration. Also don't know if they're still available from Mama Kaw.

We've been able to repair one leaking cone-type petcock by using gentle pressure and a drill to slowly rotate the cone in its bore using jeweler's rouge mixed with a drop of kerosene as the polishing agent. slmjim then discovered upon reassembly that the cone can be installed rotated 180 deg. out of place relative to the "STOP" position when he poured gas into a tank and it flowed out of the petcock even though it was at STOP :blush: .

Would the "S" on the tap lever mean "supply? Or would it be a manufacturers trademark? The new-style has a trademark in place of the "S".

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE