On my 1995 Flstc I have a Pingel petcock that went to a Pingel fuel filter that I swapped out for one off the shelf at auto palace. Recently I have been monitoring my fuel mileage because of an upcoming road trip and I have been going to the reserve setting at 110 miles. I look into the tank and see what I consider to be lots of gasoline.
I put in a mirror and a flash light and can see the tank has some rusty colored walls but no flakes and nothing terrible looking in the tank like debris or metals. The screen on the petcock looks clean as far as I can tell.

Can I service the petcock? Can I clean it? Must I replace it?

Thanks friends.

 

Ps

I used to get a solid but approximate 200 miles outta the tank when cruising at 60ish mph.
FYI

 

You can get a rebuild kit for the petcock.

http://www.pingelonline.com/fuel_valve_rebuild.htm

 

Thanks for that. I have a large bench vise so I can maybe do the rebuild but I can't see he price from the iPad. I wonder what the turn around time is for them to rebuild. Probably fairly pricey.

I wonder if I just go out and buy a no name brand. I mean come on a generic brand shouldn't be terrible. It is a valve that I could probably make at the supply house, lol.

 

I just had my Pingel petcock rebuilt by the factory and it was $15 including return shipping. I shipped it to them in a small flat rate box and it was about $6 with delivery confirmation. I believe they said their turn around time is usually a day. I put a check in the box when I sent it and the entire process was fairly quick and easy.

I originally intended to buy the rebuild kit with the special tools and do it myself. I prefer to do all of my own work and I buy any special tools when necessary.

http://www.pingelonline.com/powerflo_rebuild_kit.htm

The kit is only available with enough parts to do three and was $77.60 through Pingel. I found it elsewhere for a few dollars less.

Since I only have one valve and it should be another twenty plus years before I need to rebuild it again, having them do it was the most economical choice for me.

Best of luck with your project.

 

Thanks a bunch Mark. For $21 bucks I could probably mail it Monday an be riding Saturday. No big friggen deal there just missing the week.
Thanks again!

 

I don`t think it is the petcock, usually if it is a problem with the internal parts in a petcock, the issue will be an internal leak, either causing the fuel shutoff to work improperly, or the valve will leak internally through reserve, even when you have it set to the run position.

Normally the bike will go onto reserve when the fuel level in the tank reaches the top of the tube in the petcock.

If the bike goes on reserve before the fuel level is down to the top of the tube in the petcock, it means that fuel flow is obstructed, and there is not enough head pressure to push the fuel through the screen, or the external filter...

Remove the petcock and clean the screen, and get rid of the external filter, it is of no use.

Have you checked how much fuel you used when the bike went on reserve?

With the bike standing upright, tanks full, drain the tanks with the valve set to run, measure much fuel drains out.

You should get about 3.5 gallons. If this is what you get, you problem is the engine is using too much fuel.

 

Dan makes many good points. I agree with everything he wrote.

I read the original posts and only retained "Pingel rebuild" and thought of my recent rebuild.

 

I can cram 3.6 gallons, my personal best but of course that is tapping the trigger on the right side tank.
Thanks for the idea Dan, I can fill er up down the street then completely drain the tanks and measure her up. I do believe you when you say that there is an obstruction blocking the top of the downtube.
I gotta also get my third tank almost empty to see what I'm getting per fill up now. I reset the trip odometer when I fill up.

 

I was running rich when I started to question things and then paid attention.

I did also shut the petcock off and drained the carb bowl attempted to start bike, ran for like 12 seconds then starved. I looked at petcock an hour later and it was in off position. I undid fuel filter then there was what I believed to be a full fuel line. So maybe exactly what you wrote the the petcock may in fact not be shutting off the flow when in the off position is true.

Many thanks to you both!