What makes a petcock so special?

[Downs]

20-25 years? lolz

2000 Bandit 1200

98 DR350SE

2005 Bandit.

All had crap petcocks in under 5 years. GS1000 being the only one that "lasted" longer and that's because it sat in a basement for 13 years before we got to it.

[aclaytonb]

Agreed with bwringer. Tried 2x rebuild kits - garbage. Tried aftermarket vacuum unit - garbage. OEM replacement - zero issues and I never forget to turn on the fuel.

[Grimly]

I rebuilt one factory petcock with what I could find from Suzuki. Iirc, the o-ring wasn't available, nor the spring, but the OEM rubber washer was a perfect fit, and wasn't ancient old stock. I took the precaution of lightly dressing the mating face of the rotating valve. It's been in use for a few years now, but the most recent failure of the petcock was the outlet pipe losing its affinity with the body of the device. That happened at the same time on both fuel tanks I have, so it's something lurking in the wings for others.
I've idly toyed with the idea of having a manual tap but routing the outlet through a 12V on/off solenoid valve. I might try that, just to see how reliable it might be.