79 550 - Pre-winter gas leak

[kulchur]

Hey all,
I'm pretty sure my petcock was on the verge of failure this year as I'd have occasional minor gas leaks that would get fixed as long as I wiggled the valve around a bit to seat it closed. That worked well when it was warm, but once it finally got cold the valve was a beast to move onto prime. I'm pretty sure that during the course of getting it started one last time (ironically, in order to winterize it), I probably completely shredded the frozen/ancient rubber in there.

Now it's slowly dumping gas onto my garage floor. It's not a fast leak, but it hasn't dried out at all in a week and shows no signs of stopping. It's too late in the year to get a new petcock and install, and I'd like to avoid draining it if at all possible since I'm going the "gas + stabilizer" route this winter. (Obviously, if it has to happen, it has to happen!)

Any advice on how to plug that sucker up so it quits draining? I have not yet tried moving it to reserve to see if that setting is still intact. First item on my list for 2014: a new petcock!

[tkent02]

I'd do the new petcock now. Force yourself. A large gasoline fire is no good no matter how cold it is outside.

Either that or drain the fuel into a safe can and hope the empty gas tank doesn't rust too much.

Either way, park it outside until you can do something.