Standard Petcock Alternative

[mack]

For those of you who want to delete the vacumm aspect of the petcocks and reduce the plumbing requirements to the carbs, this is a cheap alternative.



These have reserve, off and on positions. Here is the required adapter plate.





You can see that the tank hole is very narrow and a little reaming is required. I used a dremel with a grinding wheel, the following is how that turned out.



The petcocks come with straight and 90 degree elbows. I used the 90's and turned them to the inside.



In this photo you can see the reserve tube through the screen.



This is what it looks like installed. Notice the hex head bolts are countersunk into the adapter plate which leaves a nice clean look. The other thing I like is that these only cost $39.95 can. Which is the same price as the OEM rebuild kits. When these leak in the future, I'll unscrew it from the adapter plate and throw it away and put in a new one. No more vacumm hoses and only one fuel line required per side!



I got these from MC Distrubuting in Stratford Ontario.

[Bikes]

Looks like the way to go.....of course, I just rebuilt mine a month ago.....doh!....
But I have aquired an 850 that will need some attention......thanks for the thread.......

[IanDMacDonald]

Always good to have alternatives! It's good to see an off position. I've gotten into the habit of shutting my fuel off on my carbs every time I get off the bike (despite rebuilding carbs and petcocks); it's just good insurance.

Also, if those adapter plates were mine, I'd probs trim them up a little more on the mill, or maybe paint them tank color. They def stick-out, and look aftermarket. However, I've seen pristine bikes, and dirty carb bodies, lol. So, overall they look good.

Thank you for adding to the parts knowledge bank.

[crazy steve]

I'll note that the 3/8" NPT bung on these is standard Harley fare, so that opens up a lot of choices if you go this way. You can buy good quality aftermarket Harley petcocks for as little as $15 (in chrome no less) with your choice of left, right, rear, or down exit outlets depending on the brand. J&P cycle carries a ton of petcocks in all price ranges. I've had zero issues with the cheapies from them....

[mack]

adapter plate

Nothing in Canada is cheap. If you do go for something else the adapter plate should have the gasket and the holes are 46mm on center.

[ViperRon]

Great alternative but I have one little suggestion and I speak from experience. Where you bolt the adapter plate to the tank I did not see where you cleaned the paint off. I do not care what quality paint you have it tends to dissolve in gas and particularly in ethanol added. So I suggest when you get a chance take them off clean the paint and 1st remove chance of leaking and second the paint dissolving loose and getting on the screens. My paint held for a while but did dissolve and cause gas to weep out.

[TopCatGr58]

Nothing in Canada is cheap. If you do go for something else the adapter plate should have the gasket and the holes are 46mm on center.

Hey Mack,

Nice work. I was going to ask if you found the petcock/adapter plate listed specifically for the XS11 Standard....but now I think you just found one with the ADAPTER mounting screw spacing at 46mm. BTW do you know what the thread size/pitch the mounting screws are??

I'm going to be doing a big revamp of Godzilla this winter....I've been tasked by Brent Hoovestal to do so! And RichV has just offered me a SPECIAL frame..."UNBENT" that I can perform a transplant onto so that I can finally get rid of my 2" trail affect! And I will also be looking at repainting my tank, and fixing the petcocks as well. I do have a universal one from PNM that had been given to me years ago, so I will finally be able to see about putting it on.

T.C.

[mack]

Misc

Ron- your right, I scored around the adapter and removed the clear coat and paint. This thread was about the petcocks but your right I should have shown that step too.

TC- the mounting bolts that came with these were M6x24 and fit like a glove. They also had the fiber washers included.The spacing may be different on a special. I'm guessing 32mm.

Steve- didn't know about the Harley compatibility but nothing from harley up here would be in the $15 US range, not even a key chain. Figure in the $exchange, shipping, duty at the border then our tax on top, $15 us just turned into $80 canadian. I bought a set of fork seals from Denis Kirk a couple years ago and paid $13 US for them on paypal. By the time I had them in my hands, it cost me $77 Canadian.
Free Trade my Butt!

[dbeardslee]

Those are the same kind of petcocks I've got on Betsy. I used to run them with the 90 degree outlets, but I could never get them quite tight enough and wound up changing them out for the straight outlets. It requires a bit longer fuel lines and might be problematic with a stock airbox. With pods there's plenty of room for the lines, and it makes things easier when you've got the tank turned around backwards like when tuning carbs.

I'll offer a tip for the washers on the outlets. A cheap paper punch will make a perfect sized hole in an aluminum can for those outlets. You can trim the OD with a pair of scissors and they make dandy crush washers. I used them on my brothers G, which also has those petcocks, and by changing the number of crush washers it allowed me to get the 90's timed right, good and tight, with no leaks.

[mack]

90's

Yes the 90's didn't line up where i wanted them. I used a similar method but i went with adding the second set of supplied fiber washers. I just rubbed them across a sheet of 800 grit sand paper. Checked the fit a couple times until i got a tight fit at the desired angle.

[Brak]

I hate to revive a dormant thread, but i didn't see it specifically mentioned...
is this applicable to special tanks?

the thread title is "Standard Petcock alternative", but Petcocks (plural) was used several time, making me think it might be a special....

[natemoen]

I hate to revive a dormant thread, but i didn't see it specifically mentioned...
is this applicable to special tanks?

the thread title is "Standard Petcock alternative", but Petcocks (plural) was used several time, making me think it might be a special....

There are 2 petcocks on both the standard and the special tank, hence the plural use of the work petcock. The standards have a different mounting bolt separation than the specials so the petcocks are NOT interchangeable. However since this uses a mounting plate adapter it is possible that there is a plate for the specials.

[Brak]

ok thanks
I didn't realize the standard also had two...

[mack]

Mounting plate

Yes the plates come with 32, 42 and 46mm on center. I think the special was 32mmoc, but you should check before ordering.

[Prisoner6]

Pretty sure the Specials are 34mm on center ...