Do a careful check everything after the winters rest

[Eastcoaster]

After a long winters rest I decided to fire up the 78. It has original petcocks with the vacuum system in tact for off. The carbs have pod filters.

I topped off the battery with a fresh charge. looked everything over but not good enough. Its in the garage under a cover the bike is really in great condition and beautiful paint. I did not notice anything wrong.

I hit the starter and it roared to life. Well a few seconds later you would have thought I hit a high pressure gas line. It was spewing fuel out the breather like nothing I have seen. The tank dumped in the engine and completely filled it . Not only did the petcock fail but the carb leaked and did not leak out the back of the carb. I am always checking for that. I just drained what seemed like 2 gallons and there is more all over the garage.

Wait till she sees this mess. I am lucky I did not blow up the house.

I think I am going to make sure the front tires have some sort of elevation to avoid this when parked for a while and thinking of installing manual shut off valves in addition. I am airing out everything right now and have all power shut off. Starting the clean up. I guess I will air it out a few days and pull the valve cover for starters. Pull the carbs and rebuild the petcocks.

[IanDMacDonald]

I installed Briggs & Stratton shut-off valves in-lieu of the in-line fuel filters. After that, I did the petcock mod, where up is off. I also just re-built the petcocks.

[motoman]

On centerstand, a 2x4 under front wheel resolves oil contamination from malfuntioning carbs. Carb bank removal and eliminating a possible internal 'science project' IS in your near future.

[ViperRon]

Motoman is right on point any long term storage on the center stand and a chock under front wheel. The other thing I do is always check that sight glass for oil level fill it exactly full to the line and there is no guessing if gas drained in.

[donebysunday]

Petcocks

as Marty has mentioned on the standard 11 are like the XS650. I've done this swap on a number of those, take the vacuum off and cap it, pull the selector lever and face plate of each and swap left to right. Been so long that's all I remember ? Let me know please !

[MPittma100]

Unwanted crankcase full of gas

Two by four under the front tire is the best thing to do for sure. Or simply park with the rear of the bike down hill. Easiest thing to do to (Standard) petcocks, to be able to shut the fuel off, is the faceplate mod. Remove the 2 screws and chrome faceplate. File/grind the notch off that is in the inside diameter of the faceplate. You will now be able to turn the lever to the "up" position. It will not go all the way up as it will touch the tank. But it will go far enough to shut the fuel off. You will retain the (normal) vacuum operation of the petcock.