Special Octopus

[lazer]

Hi Peoples

I've seen talk of switching out the octopus on a Special for an inline filter,etc..? Does anyone have the patience to write up the step by step, or if it is written up already, can someone please point me to it?
Thanks loads.

[skids]

What I have heard is that for each petcock, you run tube from both outlets to a Y or a T connector. You must remember to switch them to run when you need them and off when you park it. Inline filters go between the Y and the carbs. Hope this helps.

[Mike Hart]

Keeping in mind Skids' remarks, add to that a look at the Inline Filters Tip in the Modifications/Carbs forum, which has diagrams, but it leaves out the Y and/or T, which you DO need to do.

[James L]

Y or T

I used the inline filter tip for routing the fuel lines, works great.
Instead of a Y or a T, I bypassed the octopus by running a hose from front outlet on one side of tank to front outlet on the other side. Next time I take the tank off I'm planning to just cap these outlets off individually with vacuum caps and hose clamps (it'll be a bit neater i think). The only drag is I don't get the benefit of reserve. I must use reserve setting in order to get fuel, so if I run outta gas I'll be bumming. At least there's the fuel low warning light, which has given enough lead time to get me to a gas station so far. Petcocks must be turned off while parked, of course.
If I'm missing the benefit of reserve for no reason, I'm counting on you guys to clue me in, this is the first mention of a Y or T that I've seen.

James L

[Mike Hart]

James, my memory is fuzzy about when I had my octopus out, I think the front tap is the ON/RES tap, and the rear tap is the prime tap. Since you say you don't have reserve, sounds like you're running off the prime tap. Putting a Y on each petcock would get you all functions, all filtered. Lacking that, I think I would prefer to have RES by hooking the primes together for equalization, or capping them, and running off the front taps. Easy to check which is which with the fuel lines off! YMMV!!

[James L]

I'll definitely try a Y next time I'm in there, in hopes of getting all functions. To clarify, I do have reserve (it's the only position I'm able to get fuel with my setup), which means I don't get the real benefit of a separate reserve setting. So when I run out of fuel, I REALLY run out of fuel.

James L
79 sf- "Cygnus"

[Mike Hart]

ah must be that RES and PRIME run out the same tap!!! DOH!

[James L]

I remember playing with the petcocks a long time ago, and having a difficult time really understanding how they work (which outlet does what and when). At the time I was happy to get it working in its current configuration. Still beats the octopus, IMO. Strange, such a simple device makin' a monkey outta me...

[Mike Hart]

Octopus makes Monkeys of xsives

Well, pass the bananas

I had my octopus out for a while, took it apart, and couldn't figure why it wasn't working, must have dislodged some piece of crud, because when I put it back later just to try it again, it worked! and I never did figure out what had been wrong with it.

[nashville_bill]

Octopus lives and with filters too!

Well, the octopus lives and it has filters, too! I have spent many hours, and a lot of fuel line, trying to make this thing work and finally, last night, made it work correctly.

I took parts of everything that I found in the tips and in the forum and then put it all together again and again and again until I got all the bugs out of it. Everytime I tried something new, I thought that I must have had too much beer the last time I put it together. CAN YOU HAVE TOO MUCH BEER?

I took pictures and will post the final product when I figure out how to post the pictures.

In a nutshell:

1. The filters I originally used were too restrictive. Bought some new small diameter metal ones that fit a Ford and have no noticeable restriction. Plus, they are metal and won't break.
2. The filters are mounted horizontally - above the rubber air filter connectors.
3. The fuel line from the left of the vacuum control goes to the right carbs and the line from the right of the control goes to the left carbs.
4. The lines from the left petcock go the right of the control and the lines from the right petcock go the left of the control.
5. The fuel lines going to the petcocks must come from below the petcocks or they will kink and restrict the flow too much.

It's pretty crowded in there but it works great - WITH the vacuum control for the fuel cut off.

[oldnortonrider]

The XS1100 manuals have a good diagram/illustration
of the octopus (the Chinese puzzle/nightmare). It's dubble
the nightmare, when working with the octopus; with the factory setup<>airbox, and rubber-connector- boots .

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there James and Lazer,
The Prime position is what will work from one petcock outlet, the Reserve for the other, the ON won't work, at least it didn't on my Special, and Off will shut off. With the Octopus removed, it has the "T" connectors as part of it's tubing collection, remove them, and if you turn/rotate the "T" 135 degrees, it becomes a pseudo "Y" connector so the angle from both petcock outlets isn't as sharp going into the "T-Y" angled connectors vs. going into the 180 degree opposing ports of the top tube of the "T".

Then you can connect it to an inline filter, but because of lack of space from petcocks to carb inlet "T's", some folks use longer sections of tubing and run the right line to the left bank inlet, and the left petcock/lines to the right carb bank inlet. Just want to avoid a large loop that dips too far below the level of the inlet "T", otherwise you can get the sink/toilet trap syndrome where it gets trapped and won't flow back up the other side of the loop into the carbs.....you want to keep the angle going downhill for these gravity fed lines/carbs.

[Jdwags]

Have T's on the petcocks

Both of my bikes 79 sf's, have had octopusectomy's...

The Mongrel came that way, with both petcocks "T"'d before going to the carbs,

The settings on the petcocks work well, reserve, run and prime, (run and prime basically the same), and off.

I just shut em off when im done....

Im going to lengthen them and add in line filters soon..

[oldnortonrider]

MORE......

For those of you that have complete confidence, "that everything's perfect" ; between the gas tank and the carbs, when you do have everything in tip-top shape >>
......something else to ponder : oftentimes, even a perfectly
conditioned petcock with perfect, new gasket; when the engine is off, and the petcock is turned to "OFF".......there will be a SLOWWWWW drip from the petcock. The extreme heat, and the cooling down, age, and the phase of the moon, >>takes its toll.
IMHO these beautifully engineered petcocks , have "too many jobs" to do, to be perfectly trustworthy, for solid shutoff.
The only, true safeguard is a simple, simple in-line Fuel OFF/ON
valve. (Turn the petcock to OFF, too.)
Even perfectly centering float needles, and perfectly adjusted floats ;..... get cantankerous. Especially parked on side stand.

....yep, it does take some room in there for you to do all
those OFF's and ON's ; you will be sold when it's the only way to maybe cure the wet underneath's of air breathers.
I've dun too many oil changes cuz of "you know what" .

The above is contributed, assuming, that the machine is running
well at idle, and otherwise. When it is running.
It's a different world, when they're turned off.
(Leave one shutdown for a month or two, or more , without Stabil
in the gas and carbs. That's another subject/posting.)

[jkgrubbs]

octypus trouble

When I was working on the poor midrange problem, solved by the way, plugs, needles, seats, shims, I put filters in line, and retained the octopus. The filters I used were some plastic screen jobbies Briggs and Stratton, from the lawn mower section at Home Depot. Small, unobtrusive, an seems to work fine. The whole shebang has done well for a couple of tanks, so far.