Hey everyone, Im wondering if you can shine some light on my leaking petcock. It looks like it is leaking from the bottom hole of the petcock, although it could be leaking elsewhere. From what I can see there are four screws on the back of the petcock towards the motor, could these be loose causing it to leak? If so how would one go about tighting them? Any other opinions? Thanks in advance for your opinions and suggestions.

 

Mitch,

Sorry to hear of your troubles. Sorry I can't help you much but mine was leaking also so I just replaced it with a high flow PENTEL one(excuse the spelling).

Pat

 

I can't comment about your Harley petcock since I have efi but my Honda had the same problem. It seemed to leak only in colder weather which indicated the O-ring may have gotten dry or shrank enough in the cold temperature to leak. Maybe you can take off the petcock and tighten the 4 screws or replace the O-ring.

 

Thanks for the reply Pat, was it a fairly easy install? I did look at my service manual it said you need to do a vacuum test on the valve after you install it. Is that necessary?

 

Update:

The petcock only leaks when ridding the motorcycle, once I am done ridding the leak stops. Could this be a sign of another problem? For now I have decided to not ride until this is fixed, I have ordered a replacment petcock from denniskirk and it should be here monday. If anyone has any pointers on how to replace the petcock it would be greatly appreciated.

 

If you new one doesn't have the vacuum diaphram, make sure you plug the vacuum hose running to the fuel valve. I did mine by filling the end with silicone, screwing in a sheet metal screw then taping over the end with electrical tape. Sometimes it is a little easier to drain the tank using the front drain where the equalizer hose comes across.

 

Well I went ahead and installed a Pingel petcock, seems to have fixed the leak. It wasnt a bad install took me about 1.5 hrs start to finish, the most time consuming was draining the darn fuel. Thanks everyone for your help and suggestions.