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What would Murphy say?
Clerek,
“I am debating whether or not to use the octy or not use the octy. Are there any benefits besides not having to turn off the petcocks after each ride?”
From what’s been put forth so far it appears that the benefits for keeping the octy vs ditching it have mostly been covered. (Also presented are some very innovative methods to evaluate once anyone has decided to bail on the octy...A Spirited debate and I expect to see it evolve into something useful where the fuel tank meets the carbs.)
I did have a standard before I acquired the special and although my special did not come with the octy, I did get one included with a set of carbs that I bought. I haven’t installed the octy as I don’t have the right petcocks for it to work as originally intended. But I did remove and rebuild the “automatic” petcocks on the standard I had. This is the basis for my decision to NOT use the octy on my current special.
I didn’t tear the petcocks apart just because I had nothing else to do. Both petcocks leaked at the control lever and neither petcock actually shut off the fuel the way originally designed to do. Disassembly revealed bad gaskets, bad seals, bad diaphragms, dried “varnish”, debris and corrosion at all of the mating surfaces. (The joys of discovery, eh?) I not only bought the rebuild kits but also got an extra set of petcocks because I was none too sure that the original petcocks would be usable even after the rebuild. Turns out that after the rebuild the petcocks didn’t leak and appeared to do their job. But I owned the bike for less than 200 miles after this. No way for me to know just how long the rebuild worked/stayed working.
The big deal breaker for me was that the Standard Petcocks used a diaphragm/spring/vacuum to turn the fuel on and off. (Kinda like the special octy..) Lot’s of things are conditional and “Iffy” when you think about it. The absence of vacuum doesn’t turn the fuel off. It just allows the diaphragm/spring to return to the original state. Whether that spring pressure is enough to press the diaphragm “seal” up against the mating surface enough to really keep the gas from flowing is dependent on the condition of the seal and the metal/mating surface. Any imperfections and well, you don’t really have a true shut-off. Combine this image with the fact that in all of the variations presented thus far not a single version places inline filters BEFORE this vacuum/spring/diaphragm. Grit and debris + tiny little spring + Small Seal + Small mating surface = Hmmmm. Maybe enough to stop the gas from flowing and maybe not. Keep it limited to something less than a draft horse? Likely. You can test the ability of the diaphragm or octy on the bench before you install it but after its on the bike then its another deal altogether. Some might agree that you will find out if the octy has failed by finding a stream of gas pouring out of your airbox or by finding that there’s much more “oil” in the sightglass than the last time you looked.
“Automatic” features are a great thing when they work. I just love the fact that the turn signals on some bikes are automatic “self-cancelling”. When they don’t self-cancel then you’ll see your blinkers still flashing as you go down the road. (Push the button IN and they stop flashing…) A minor annoyance to the driver behind at the least and an accident causing “holy Crap!” at worst. The automatic petcock/octy feature, like turn signals, are a safety feature. The fuel shut-off being a safety feature to prevent fuel from flowing out of the carbs onto the ground or from flowing into the engine where BAD things can happen. But it’s a matter of trusting that this automatic feature really does its job all the time…every time. Hard to know when it gets “Iffy”. Easy to know when it totally fails. But then will you find out before or after the crankcase is filled with gas?
Place yer bets, gentlemen and ladies! Place yer bets!
Clerek,
“I am debating whether or not to use the octy or not use the octy. Are there any benefits besides not having to turn off the petcocks after each ride?”
From what’s been put forth so far it appears that the benefits for keeping the octy vs ditching it have mostly been covered. (Also presented are some very innovative methods to evaluate once anyone has decided to bail on the octy...A Spirited debate and I expect to see it evolve into something useful where the fuel tank meets the carbs.)
I did have a standard before I acquired the special and although my special did not come with the octy, I did get one included with a set of carbs that I bought. I haven’t installed the octy as I don’t have the right petcocks for it to work as originally intended. But I did remove and rebuild the “automatic” petcocks on the standard I had. This is the basis for my decision to NOT use the octy on my current special.
I didn’t tear the petcocks apart just because I had nothing else to do. Both petcocks leaked at the control lever and neither petcock actually shut off the fuel the way originally designed to do. Disassembly revealed bad gaskets, bad seals, bad diaphragms, dried “varnish”, debris and corrosion at all of the mating surfaces. (The joys of discovery, eh?) I not only bought the rebuild kits but also got an extra set of petcocks because I was none too sure that the original petcocks would be usable even after the rebuild. Turns out that after the rebuild the petcocks didn’t leak and appeared to do their job. But I owned the bike for less than 200 miles after this. No way for me to know just how long the rebuild worked/stayed working.
The big deal breaker for me was that the Standard Petcocks used a diaphragm/spring/vacuum to turn the fuel on and off. (Kinda like the special octy..) Lot’s of things are conditional and “Iffy” when you think about it. The absence of vacuum doesn’t turn the fuel off. It just allows the diaphragm/spring to return to the original state. Whether that spring pressure is enough to press the diaphragm “seal” up against the mating surface enough to really keep the gas from flowing is dependent on the condition of the seal and the metal/mating surface. Any imperfections and well, you don’t really have a true shut-off. Combine this image with the fact that in all of the variations presented thus far not a single version places inline filters BEFORE this vacuum/spring/diaphragm. Grit and debris + tiny little spring + Small Seal + Small mating surface = Hmmmm. Maybe enough to stop the gas from flowing and maybe not. Keep it limited to something less than a draft horse? Likely. You can test the ability of the diaphragm or octy on the bench before you install it but after its on the bike then its another deal altogether. Some might agree that you will find out if the octy has failed by finding a stream of gas pouring out of your airbox or by finding that there’s much more “oil” in the sightglass than the last time you looked.
“Automatic” features are a great thing when they work. I just love the fact that the turn signals on some bikes are automatic “self-cancelling”. When they don’t self-cancel then you’ll see your blinkers still flashing as you go down the road. (Push the button IN and they stop flashing…) A minor annoyance to the driver behind at the least and an accident causing “holy Crap!” at worst. The automatic petcock/octy feature, like turn signals, are a safety feature. The fuel shut-off being a safety feature to prevent fuel from flowing out of the carbs onto the ground or from flowing into the engine where BAD things can happen. But it’s a matter of trusting that this automatic feature really does its job all the time…every time. Hard to know when it gets “Iffy”. Easy to know when it totally fails. But then will you find out before or after the crankcase is filled with gas?
Place yer bets, gentlemen and ladies! Place yer bets!
If I left mine alone I would have wound up part of the walking brigade since my fuel light was not functioning, and I had no idea I was draining the reserve when on PRIME which was the only way the bike would run. Pushing one of these pigs REALLY sucks.
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