Gas in the crankcase oil - again!

[Guest]

I love my stock petcocks. I would never remember to turn off my petcock everytime I shut down. I would just as well set a bucket under the carbs.

That has always been my fear too Don. I am really thinking this through. But I want to do it. I just need a fool proof way to remember or the fool wont.

It becomes routine, on a bike with a manual petcock...... ignition off, kickstand down & petcock off before getting off the bike....or centrestand in your case, since thats what you prefer . Also annoying is forgetting to turn it back on & the bike cough & sputters just when you crack open the throttle to teach that punk in the cage at the first light :twisted: :lol: .



Tony.

 

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Well Mark, all I can say is once you learn to manage your Pingel, you're going to be a happy man. My Pingel and I are good friends.

Earl

And I have been converted, finally. It is going to happen. I have 15 miles on the oil in that engine and it is filled with gas! Again! I can't deal with this.

I am going to have to learn to turn fuel on and off now.

Thanks again.

I can see that now. Very clearly Earl. Can you point me in the right direction to get one for my 78 GS1000? What do you recommend?

This ain't Earl, this is the better looking guy. 8)
Just go to their website and check out their valves.
They come in different designs like, round body, hexagon body...They also come in polished aluminum or chromed. You need an adapter too. Measure the two bolts, center to center, that hold your petcock to the tank. You'll have to enlarge the hole the petcock goes into. Just a little, with a rat tailed file or ?, about 1/16" to 1/8" on each side. You shouldn't need to trim the valve fuel screen at all.
Mine was about $90 including adapter/shipping.
It's no problem remembering to shut it off after a ride. You just do it. Like we did with dirt bikes years ago.
If you're serious, I'll look up my Pingel receipt for the P/N. I bought the round body, chromed. I also bought their fuel line. It's like surgical rubber or similar. Goes on easy and doesn't need clamps. Though I did use a tie strap on the carb end.
Just click the WWW below if you want to see it. I have a pretty good shot of it in my pic' section.

 

[earlfor]

Its easy Mark. Just plant it in your mind the key no longer shuts the bike off.
To shut the bike off, you turn the petcock to off. When you leave the bike, youre going to take the key with you anyway.

Earl

I love my stock petcocks. I would never remember to turn off my petcock everytime I shut down. I would just as well set a bucket under the carbs.

That has always been my fear too Don. I am really thinking this through. But I want to do it. I just need a fool proof way to remember or the fool wont.

 

[duaneage]

Put a sticker on the Tach that says" turn your fuel off, Dummy!"

That should do the trick

 

[beby99]

Or rig an alarm....when you turn key off...alarm sounds:

"Your fuel is ajar....your fuel is ajar" :roll: :wink:

 

[duaneage]

Or rig an alarm....when you turn key off...alarm sounds:

"Your fuel is ajar....your fuel is ajar" :roll: :wink:

ROFLMAO :lol: :lol:

 

[rphillips]

Seems like you need to find out for sure what is leaking. If the fuel is coming thru the vacuum hose, the needle & seats may not be leaking, but if the fuel from the pet cock is coming thru the fuel line, at least one of the needle & seats is leaking. If a needle & seat leaks, it leaks all the time weather the engine is OFF or ON. If you install a Pingle, it will stop the leaking needle & seat when the valve is off, but while the engine, and Pingle is on, the needle & seat will still be leaking.

 

[Giblet]

Put a kit in my vacuum operated petcock today. Took all of 10 minutes. I also have an 03 Intruder with manual petcock. Manual is OK till your needle & seat o-rings start to leak & you neglect to turn it off. Vacuum is great till you get a pin hole in the diaphram & it either won't open or starts sucking gas down the vacuum port. Point being, I have both & can't say that I prefer either so I'll just head in the general direction of keeping them both stock.

 

[duaneage]

This goes back to that adage of "Don't fix one problem with another"
Considering that kits for the petcock are available and cheap it is probably a good idea to change that diaphram every 20 years whether it needs it or not. Then you don't have to worry about it until 2025.

 

[retrex]

To vaccum or not to vacuum.

To vaccum or not to vacuum.

I love my stock petcocks. I would never remember to turn off my petcock everytime I shut down. I would just as well set a bucket under the carbs.

I agree with dpep. I'm doing good when I remember to put my kickstand down, I'll never remember to do two things. I have had only one catastraphic failure in 25 years, I am willing to chance one more in the next 25 year for the sake of convience.

 

[Hoomgar]

Thanks everyone. All of your comments have helped me make up my mind. Like when Keith said "just like you did with your dirt bikes" - see, that's exactly the point, of the 5 dirt bikes I owned over 30 years I never, ever, even once during the entire time I owned them all remembered to turn off the fuel even one time! I never ever did it even once! There is no way in heven or hell I will ever remember to turn off the petcock. It is simply impossible for me to remember. Not sure why. So there is no way I am going that route. I was talking with Duane Saturday morning before the ride and realized that hey, things break and we simply fix them. That's what we do on these 25+ year old bikes. This is no different. I already have the stock rebuild kit so I'll just do it.

Now on another note. What Ron said. And some others combined. I think the issue is a saturated float. I know the needles and seats were good and the fuel is filtered going into the carbs and the carbs just cleaned so the most likely culprit is a saturated/bad float. My rememberer is rememberering this set of carbs doing this on my other bike. The gas took out a crank end and baring.

I say that because I am getting gas in my oil while I ride.

Petcock needs rebuilt anyway so I'll do that. And I am going to swap my floats with the set from my other carbs which I know are good.

Thanks a million guys

 

[Hoomgar]

OK, the petcock is rebuilt. New float needles and seats installed and known good floats installed. I changed the oil again.

We'll see if this gets it when I ride it to work tomorrow.

 

[wrench]

OK, the petcock is rebuilt. New float needles and seats installed and known good floats installed. I changed the oil again.

We'll see if this gets it when I ride it to work tomorrow.

Hey theres another 22 pages left yet :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :lol:

 

[Hoomgar]

OK, the petcock is rebuilt. New float needles and seats installed and known good floats installed. I changed the oil again.

We'll see if this gets it when I ride it to work tomorrow.

Hey theres another 22 pages left yet :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :lol:

No worries mate. This is a Hoom thread :twisted:

 

[wrench]

OK, the petcock is rebuilt. New float needles and seats installed and known good floats installed. I changed the oil again.

We'll see if this gets it when I ride it to work tomorrow.

Hey theres another 22 pages left yet :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :lol:

No worries mate. This is a Hoom thread :twisted:

Dont we know it already :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted:

 

[KEITH KRAUSE]

To me, the Pingel valve is an upgrade.
When you live long term with a bike, you get rid of the weak points, which the stock petcock is.
In a way, the new valve is no different than a good pipe, pods, piston kit, cams...you just get used to the change.

 

[robinjo]

OK, the petcock is rebuilt. New float needles and seats installed and known good floats installed. I changed the oil again.

We'll see if this gets it when I ride it to work tomorrow.

Hey theres another 22 pages left yet :twisted: :twisted: :lol: :lol:

:lol:

 

[Hoomgar]

Rain!!! Grrrrrr :x

I'll have to test tomorrow. Looks good from sitting over night though.

 

[Hoomgar]

Well I fixed several things at one time so I am not sure what fixed it but this is resolved. It needed the petcock rebuilt anyway, the valve needles and seats I had new so there was no sense in not putting them in there while I was at it. And the floats have been suspect before for other reasons so all three things needed done anyway IMHO. Normally I would fix one thing at a time in order to find a problem but I am just as happy that this one is gone.

3 days now and my oil still looks nice and clean and at the same level. No gas smell in the crankcase.

Rock on 8)

 

[DMPLATT]

Good news man.

Now ride that thing. 8)