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Old June 5th, 2013, 05:10 PM   #1
ans008
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Fuel Petcock Issue

While I was shimming the carbs, I noticed that the fuel petcock was set to PRIME rather than ON, and I have been ridding the bike without any apparent issues for over 1000 miles now. Upon setting it to the ON position, I noticed my idle becoming extremely rough and the bike will eventually die. When I try and blip the throttle with it in the ON position it is quite sluggish. My question is would it be any problem just leaving it in the PRIME position and switching it over whenever I need to remove the tank? From the looks of it, the petcock has been switch has been used a good couple times.
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Old June 5th, 2013, 05:25 PM   #2
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Not a great idea to leave it in PRIME. If there ever is any issue with the float needles in your carbs, the entire fuel tank will drain into your crankcase. Best case, the motor won't start. Worst case, it will catch on fire.

Need to figure out why the bike isn't working properly while it is set to ON. When it is running poorly, open up the gas cap. If it immediately starts running better, that would then point to some type of venting issue with the gas tank.
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Old June 5th, 2013, 05:52 PM   #3
ans008
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I have also noticed the strong smell of gasoline around the bike as of late since it is garage kept. I am sure the two are related, but I can't specifically state how / why.

Edit - Update

She died on me before I could exit the neighborhood with petcock set to ON and would not start, indicating that fuel is not flowing. Once I set it back to PRIME there were no issues starting up or riding henceforth.

Last futzed with by ans008; June 6th, 2013 at 12:02 PM.
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Old June 7th, 2013, 07:09 AM   #4
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No one has any more info they'd like to chime in??
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Old June 7th, 2013, 08:10 AM   #5
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The petcock is vacuum operated, and allows fuel flow when there is a reasonable amount of engine vacuum. If the engine is running fine in prime, but not in the ON position, it seems that there must be some type of problem in getting that vacuum to the petcock. Probably a leak of some sort in that vacuum hose. But the problem is so pronounced, I wonder if the hoses have been disconnected or misrouted on your bike.
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Old June 7th, 2013, 04:38 PM   #6
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If there's no signs of leaking fuel, the smell could be a loose or disconnected overflow tube. It's on the left side of the tank and I can't remember exactly but you probably need to take off the fairing to get to it. I'm not so sure about your petcock issue. I would inspect the hoses and if that doesn't provide answers then remove the tank and take out the petcock to have a look.
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Old June 7th, 2013, 07:14 PM   #7
ans008
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I just recently took the tank off to shim needles and other various things, and it "seemed" every hose was properly connected. The two smaller hoses could possibly have been installed incorrectly prior to my purchase of the bike (08 purchased almost a year ago with 1200 miles). As I stated before, the petcock switch shows obvious signs of use which leads me to believe that this was an ongoing problem. Does anyone know where I can find the proper hose routing?
I tried opening the tank while the bike was running and in ON position. There was no change, but I only let it run for a few minutes. I will try it tomorrow again and give it adequate time.
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