Petcock question

Scorpio1963

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Hey guys do you know if I can buy a seperate fuel outlet for the petcock on our 400`s?Mine broke off today so Im screwed I cant start or ride my bike.I found one on PartsNMore but its universal and doest say what size the threads are.
 

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Well being the clever Mc Giver minded person I am I found a fitting that was just a tad bit larger,drilled and tapped the hole then put in the new fitting.Then I JB welded around the circumference of the fitting.It should and be stronger than the original brass fitting.
You are correct Drewpy after doing an extensive search most of the afternoon the only way to get one is to buy a new petcock.
 
great that you just mc gyver'ed it! I preferably use a tin can, some zip ties and superglue
 
Congrats on your TEMPORARY solution to that problem.

Gasoline is explosive and highly flammable.

After a few weeks your quick solve might actually fail at the molecular level, causing a fuel leak onto a hot engine that may or may not explode your tank full of gas if a fire starts.

So the shortest advice I can give you is this.

Buy the replacement TODAY while your short term solution is working, then replace it with a proper one when it arrives. Please.

A vintage bike is not a good thing to get burned on.

Drewcifer.
 
You do bring up a good point JB quick weld is probaly not resistant to the E85 in gasoline.:banghead:Dam I wish the government wouldnt force us to buy this crap the E85 Im talking about.
 
I did find this reveiw of JB weld and and using with gas

Just read that JB Weld and ethanol don't mix. It seems that the ethanol blended gasoline will soften the JB Weld. That's all we have up here in Saskatchewan is the blended stuff (except premium). Does anyone know what the sealer is on rectangular Briggs tanks like on the model 8, 8B, 60400, etc. It's some kind of epoxy.
I need to find a stuff called Dynatex
 
I did find this reveiw of JB weld and and using with gas but IDK if the gas this guy was using had E85 or not.:yikes:

JB Weld is your product. Used it on three different motorcycle tanks, one of which I owned for 8 years after sealing, with nary a leak. Good stuff. Did better than the Kreme Tank Sealant stuff by far. If it won't fail in a cycle with all that vibration going on it won't fail.


Marine Tex Gray is what you want. No leaks on my Maxim tank where I used it but the seems are rotted too so I have to do it again.

MarineTexGray_LG.jpg


It ain't cheap though, it runs about $17 for a box. Not sure if you are close to water either, may have to order from somewhere.
 
If epoxy based solvent putties like the one suggested were effective, Petcocks would already be made from them.

You might not get hurt, but why risk it?? Is 100 dollars really a gamble you'd take with a burned torso? I would not. I'd BITCH all week about the 100 for the petcock, but I'd never get burned.

Your move chief, btw, a petcock from another bike might work too, find a similar year, model, tank. Just don't rely on putties please.

Drewcifer
 
a leaky petcock will not result in explosions and burned torsos drewcifer... Relax. It's not C4.

Gasoline is very flammable, yes. However, an explosion is only achieved when a perfect mix of air and misted gasoline is ignited. First of all, there won't be any misting of your fuel if it leaks out. Second of all, how are you going to ignite it outside of your cylinders? There's no spark there, nor is your engine hot enough to ignite gasoline just from coming in contact with it. If that were the case, a hot engine wouldn't require a spark anymore. Lastly, achieving a perfect air-fuel mix is hard. That's why we have adjustable air intakes, fuel mixture screws etc. on our bikes. That doesn't just magically happen.

And petcocks are not made from epoxy based solvent putties, not because it's not effective, but because these kind of things are just too expensive to make bikes with. Base materials like metals are really cheap when you're producing in mass like our bikes were. Think about it. Glues, resins, epoxy, all those kind of things you never see in anything mass-produced. Instead, things are screwed, clamped, or attached mechanically in another way, or made from cast aluminium or other metals, even when these glues and epoxys can do a better job.

If I can advise Scorps anything, it's just be sure to use something that doesn't soften when in contact with gasoline, cause then it will start leaking again sooner or later.

Yes, of course a brand new petcock is the safest, most reliable option. But I don't think there is anything wrong with Scorpio's low-budget fix either.

Don't try to scare people when you don't know what the dangers actually are.
 
XSChris I was looking at that last night and even had a spare tank to measure the holes to make sure it would fit..
Williem thanks for your write up man I appreciate that:thumbsup:
 
Yes, get a new petcock, but what I am saying is that I researched it some and read many testimonials of Marine-Tex fixing fuel tank leaks and lasting for years. It's formulated to stand up to fuel specifically and it does, thus it also costs a lot.
 
Well I have sorta bad and good news.I still have leaking fuel problem.Not extremely serious just a drip drip drip.Suspecting the fitting that put into the petcock which I srewed in then smothered with JB weld,It wasnt leaking through the expoxy at all.I took it off and redid it anyways.My source of the leak is the piece of hose coming from my inline filter connecting onto the fitting.So Im going to have to get a piece of hose with smaller diameter.Problem fixed.
 
All I know is that I patched my tank with JB Weld then by the next day it had eaten it away where with the Marine-Tex no such thing happened.
 
Well Im confident my patch jon will hold up.If not I find another fitting that slightlylarger retapped the thread and use an oring like on the original.
 
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