Hey guys, the Petcock of my 94 Vulcan 500 has been leaking i took it apart to see if i could fix it and it just looks like the little paper thin gaskets in it have just gone bad. My buddy and I want to ride to Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest on Friday and he is talking about just putting some gasket material in it to stop the leakage and cutting off the bottom vacume tube from the system.

We started the bike with a makeshift gasket cutting off that tube and the bike ran fine so he is convinced it is unneeded. My question to you guys is what the hell does the thing do? Is it really important? If i order a new petcock the earliest i will get it will be friday if im lucky and its like 75 bucks...

Trying to put up pictures but i can't seem to figure out how, not to good at this forum thing lol

Thanks Guys!

 

okay think i got one of the pictures to attach to this thing... The tube we are bypassing is the one on the bottom... any ideas?

 

Hazard a guess here, if its like the GPX250 tap off is off, on is on but controlled by a vacuum valve when the engines cranking or running (save you having to turn fuel off when you stop). Reserve is reserve. You should be able to get a tap kit (new seals and "O" ring for the vacuum valve. If you're running with it modified then I would make sure I turned the fuel OFF just to make sure if the tap is leaking slightly and the float valves are a bit weak that you didn't end up with a flooded engine.

gammac

 

good info here

 

Thanks guys thats what a couple people had told me but I wanted to get another opinion. I ordered a new Diaphragm and O-rings from the Kawi dealer around here and hopefully they will get in before friday. if they don't then we will getto-rig it and i will just make sure to turn the petcock off. Thanks for the answers!