Petcock threads face up and reserve blocked by tank????

[buztabuzt]

Title says it . Tried rethreading multiple times and on right side faces up / in. Left side faces sideways, forced it to face slightly down but still not right.

Wtf? This is the 2 fast Moto replacement petcock $36

Comedy of errors. How on Earth do you switch to reserve when it is blocked by the tank?!??

 

[sandmanred]

Hmmm.

Two ideas to make it work would be to shorten the handle a bit or make a spacer that pushes the assembly away from the tank a bit.

 

[xschris]

With that lever in that position fuel should still flow. My petcocks came with straight fittings also. But that was a few years ago.

 

[buztabuzt]

Fuel flowed at that angle, but not on reserve. Going to try to grind or Dremel the handle so it fits by the tank

 

[buztabuzt]

Fyi, for those in similar bind in the future, I was able to use Dremel with cutoff disc and abrasive sander to create some clearance

 

[NewHavenMike]

I have the same petcock, but it came with a straight and a 90 fitting and a blocking plug... i use the straight one.

The reserve flows from the same fitting, so you only need to use one fitting and then block off the other one..

The reserve setting is tricky at first. With the petcock mounted, you should be able to turn the reserve on by turning the lever all the way up toward the tank. The lever on mine, the reserve doesnt open until the lever is hitting the tank. It has just enough clearance .

 

[buztabuzt]

Thanks Mike, I thought about that but with straight fitting it would be a longer fuel line in a C shape or s shape with my bike alignment.

The reserve didn't seem to cut in on mine and I figured this workaround would ensure I wasn't loosening the seal by forcing it.

 

[xschris]

This is how mine are routed. Make sure to use ethanol resistant fuel line and spring clamps. Even with Yamahas' fuel med I still use this type of line. It's flex-able and the clamps will keep pressure even after the hose warms up and gets soft. The screw type clamps are set to one size and won't adjust to compensate.

 

[buztabuzt]

I have what seems like a gallon in my tank that doesn't flow through on reserve. After thinking about the petcock it occurred to me that what I believe is the reserve line (right gold tube in pic) is pretty long; on stock one it is just a hole in the bottom of the screen. So thinking the long tube has fuel below it all throughout tank which it doesn't sip.

Does this make sense? Thinking I'll yet again have to dremel this $36 POS petcock and hack off most of that gold tube before replacing the screen on it. Thinking I'll shove q tip down it to prevent metal shards from going down into it and extract q tip after cut.

View attachment 33446

 

[xschris]

I have used this type of petcock on all my xs400's and on a few xs650's and never had any issues. If your not getting fuel out of the reserve side even with a full tank it might be plugged. There is a screen inside the unit also. It's behind the bolt on the bottom of it. I never run my tanks much below half just so I don't get any fine bits sucked off the bottom into the carbs. I have never had to switch to reserve when riding. With an almost 4 gal tank and getting 55+mpg I can always find a place to fill up.

 

[buztabuzt]

I never run my tanks much below half

Fair. I get your point, but from a technical standpoint I might lose sleep knowing there's an unusable gallon of gas I'm carrying around into perpetuity. Could get a peanut tank if I wanted to abandon capacity.

I just added 4L ethanol free gas (only tank I had to fill) to mine and was planning to drive it back to fill with eth free and regular gas. Closest ethanol free station is a 40 min ride away . After putzing around a bit I think now it's already below reserve before I could make it back for proper eth-free fill up. Guess I'll just mix in regular stuff and live with it and occasional stabilizer - was going to happen eventually but wanted to finish more wrenching with eth free so I didn't worry about it sitting. This is a good problem I guess, corn juice will force me to keep riding it

edit: Talked with manufacturer who confirmed the reason they do this is precisely to avoid drawing from bottom of the tank / crud. Good call as always Chris. Since they still have a screen on it... I think I'll trim tube slightly so it doesn't get bottom of tank but I'm not leaving close to a gallon down there. Probably not worth the hassle but will take the same amount as getting gas back to it.

 

[xschris]

From on to reserve is only about a quart or so of gas. Just enough to get you to a place to fill up. From reserve to bone dry about another quart or so. I run 93 ethanol with yamaha fuel med. Never had any issues with gas even after sitting for a few months. I do drain all the tanks bone dry and spray stable fogging oil in them. Then store in a warm dry space for the winter months.