petcock predicament

[Rasputin]

Ok here is my predicament. I have had the petcocks off of my 79 special quite a few times over the years for painting and such. The petcocks have been rebuilt sometimes both at the same time with beers involved, (all the parts together in one pile). Now I am not sure which petcock should be on which side. The plate that is on the petcock for marking the position can interchange side to side. The petcocks can also interchange from side to side. If I take the fuel hoses off and turn the selctor to prime should it be the forward line that drops fuel or the rearward one? On the right side petcock that is mounted now, the prime fuel flow is from the rear hose, The on and res come out of the front hole. The petcock has the small R stamped into it to identify which side it should be on. Does the petcock handle when covering the off position actually point to the rear or front of the bike? Do the prime lines go to the #3 and #4 on the octy or do they hook to the #1and #2 on the octy? I do have the octy routing diagrahm in front of me but if these petcocks have been moved etc the I need to figure out the correct placement of them. I would love to know which is the prime cicuit and which is not as I may want to end up with them on the wrong sides so I can run my fat fuel lines past the k+n's without kinking. Anybody have any words of wisdom to help with this? Thanks.

[CatatonicBug]

I can only talk about what I have on my '81, but "off" is with both levers pointed directly forward. The connections on the petcocks that are the closest to the front of the bike go to the 2 center connections on the octo. The rear-most hoses connect to the outer-most connections on the octo. HTH

[Ken Talbot]

Does this help?

[Rasputin]

Thanks Ken, but I do have that diagram here. It does however help me to explain what I mean. If you take the petcock from the left side and switch it to the right side, the forward tube becomes the back tube. That is what my problem is. How do I tell if the petcocks are still on the correct side.

[Rasputin]

CatatonicBug thanks for your input as well. If I understand correctly though, it seems your routing and the routing in the pic are different. As yours is an 81 it may be different I certainly dont know. When mine are in the off position the handle is pointing towards the rear of the bike. I am still puzzled as to which flow should come from which tube on the petcock.

[bikerphil]

Sounds like you have the left and right reversed. Put the one with the R on the right side of the tank. Plug the front outlet if you are not using the octopus. The off position faces forward, reserve is up, on is down, and prime would be pointing back. Don't forget that it's possible the chrome indicator plates might have been reversed too.

[exquized1]

my 79 special is backwards! off is twords you. Figured this out while in wisconsin with 3 other 79 specials. It has been that way from the day I got it. No big deal works fine. capped the front 2 to bypass octy!

[CatatonicBug]

Originally posted by Rasputin
If I understand correctly though, it seems your routing and the routing in the pic are different.

Oops.. You're right. I double-checked, and I wrote it backwards. Mine is like the diagram.

[boyat68]

A picture of the right petcock showing the position of the indicator plate and data.

The lever is in the down position showing the RUN position, to the left is the Pri position with an indicator arrow, to the right is the Res position showing the arrow pointing to the front. Up in the Right corner is the "R" indicating the right petcock and on the back is another R.

[Rasputin]

Got her now

Thanks everyone for your help. I have it figured out now. The chrome plates were indeed switched. Boyat68 provided me the key, even though his petcocks were not the same as my special. Their is in fact two "L's" on the body of the left petcock and two "R's" on the right petcock. When you add the "L" or "R" which is on each of the chrome plates you end up with three on each petcock. Kinda makes me wonder some days just how dumb I really can be...lol. Now to get those fuel lines back on the right way.

[Fredjohny]

you at least figured it out...it took me 2 years to find out that I mixed the l & r up.....gee look stamped right on them ...go figure.....those engineers are smart