Petcock Problems

[AndyHartvig]

I have heard conflicting reviews on petcock rebuild kits but I have a petcock that is not working properly and I am wondering what my options are since they are pretty hard to come by. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Schming]

What is it doing or not doing ?
What bike are You working on?
If you add the model and year to your signature you will receive better responses.
Also, a lot of members secure parts from:

http://stores.ebay.com/GEORGEFIXS-MO...&_sid=59877813

George is great to deal with.

[crazy steve]

I have heard conflicting reviews on petcock rebuild kits...

Well, the K&L kits are the only game in town, so it's not like you have a lot of choices; use the kits, try to find a 'better' used one, or convert to another type of petcock with adaptors.

If yours is leaking externally, a rebuild kit is the only fix. Internal leaks can be dirty petcocks, so a good cleaning will be in order but you still may need to rebuild. They can get corroded internally too, so if that's the case you'll probably need to replace.

[fredintoon]

I have heard conflicting reviews on petcock rebuild kits but I have a petcock that is not working properly and I am wondering what my options are since they are pretty hard to come by. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi Andy,
what has been known to work is to dismantle the petcock, carefully polish the tap's rotating inner face and flip the multi-hole rubber washer over so it presents a new face to the tap. Of course, you are out of luck if the dreaded PO has already done this.

[AndyHartvig]

OK so here is where I'm at. We replaced both coils with ones that test correctly. They read 1.5 ohms on the primary side and 15k ohms on the secondary side and the boots all read at 5k ohms. They are also hooked up with the correct wiring for each side orange to the left coil and gray to the right coil. I have good spark on the 2&3 coil but on the 1&4 I have one little flicker every once in a while. When we tried switching the orange and gray wires I then had the opposite of before with the 2&3 having good spark and the 1&4 nothing. We went back to the Ignition box and used a test light on the gray wire and when cranking the engine over the light would go on and off like I am assuming it should. But when we tested the orange wire the light would get really dim and stay that way until we stopped cranking. Any Ideas?

Also, the petcock situation. When the tank is sitting on the bike and the petcocks are turned to the on position I am assuming that fuel should flow freely in the lines. If that is the case the right side petcock is working fine but on the left side no fuel will flow unless I lift the tank up and tilt it and move it around a little. I am not sure whats up with that but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Again!

[crazy steve]

Check your pick-up coil wires behind the ignition cover on the motor. These move when the motor is running and are famous for breaking. Look here:
http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=543

[AndyHartvig]

OK so no obvious problems with the wires from the pickup coil everything looks very clean and in order and I pulled on the wires and nothing seemed a miss. From the diagnosis that I have done so far it is quite obvious to me that the orange wire that goes from the 1&4 coils to the ignition module has an issue somewhere in the line or the ignition module. I hope between this post and my previous on e someone will be able to give me a bit of hope. Could it be as simple as swapping my ignition module out for a new one? Any help would be great thanks!

[DiverRay]

Andy,

Pick-up coil wires CAN be bad, and hard to see. The easy way to tell is unplug the small connector off the ignition box, and check the resistance for the two pickup coils. If the both look good, I would then connect the VOM to the suspect wires, and pull on them down near the coils to see if there is any change. If all looks good from there, it's on to the other side of the box.
Since you know what color wire is not working, put a VOM on it AT THE COIL and measure to GROUND first. This should be pretty much an open circuit. Next is measure from the orange to POSITIVE at the ignition, with the ignition turned OFF. This should tell you if there is a short between the ignition and the orange side. Last would be to turn on the ignition, and measure the voltage between the orange and ground, and the blue and ground. they should be the same. If not, you may have a power leak into the orange. I would also try this final test with the Ignition box unplugged, and if the measurements are the same on both, then the box is probably bad.
You CAN do some repairs on the early box, but it's usually easier to find a good replacement.