question. what is the pet cock that I am reading about

[jteller1]

I had a situation this past friday, after rolling down the expressway, my 1979 GS 550E started to bog and eventually died. I got it restarted and home. I could not find out why it did this. I saw this question on bikecliffs web site. 13) Install new petcock, since I'm going to head to the roof with a rifle if I have to read about yet another #2 plug fouling and failed hillbilly attempts to rebuild the petcock and/or deny there's a problem.

Is this the fuel tank pet cock? I wonder if my vacuum diaphram is bad causing it to run out of gas.

I checked the coils, plugs, I have a dynatek ignition and the timing is dead on. fuel line and vacuum lines are new

Any suggestions????




Thank you for your help

[bonanzadave]

Yes sir. Every reference to "Petcock" is in fact the fuel valve bolted to the bottom of the fuel tank. If you changed the Fuel and Vac hoses make sure they are not too long which can cause them to kink when you put the tank back on. If thats not it try running on "Pri". That will tell you if your Petcock is bad.

[Steve]

Yes, any mention of a "petcock" is usually concerning the fuel tank petcock.

Suggestions?
Sure.
#1. Next time it happens, turn the petcock to the PRI position to see if it still happens. If it does, it just might be your diaphragm.
#2. If #1 does not help, next time it bogs down, loosen the gas cap, listen to see if you hear a "whoosh" when you break the seal. If so, you need to clean the vent in the gas cap.

.

[jteller1]

Thanks !!!!!

Thanks, I did have to turn it to prime to get it home. I will get a new diaphram

[TheCafeKid]

Thanks, I did have to turn it to prime to get it home. I will get a new diaphram

Get a new petcock. The diaphrams/rebuild kits are generally JUNK, and you may end up with it functioning WORSE than it already does, as in not at all, or it wont STOP flowing. An OEM style petcock can be purchased for your bike from www.Z1Enterprises.com for roughly 50 bucks, give or take 10 bucks, and you wont have to worry about the darn thing for another 20 years...

[jteller1]

A big thank you!!!!

Thank you for the web site. I checked it out and it has allot of cool stuff that I will eventually need to keep this old 30yr girl on the road.

[teet]

Check out this thread about my carb issues. I was having very similar problems with my GS1000, and it ended up being that I added a new petcock, and the fuel line was too long...these bikes are gravity feed, and if your fuel line snakes around too much it can starve your carbs by not filling the bowls.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?t=147008

good luck!

Jeff (teet)

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Are you using a fuel filter? A petcock looks something like this:




Sometimes the parts fiches will call it a "fuel cock".

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[robertbarr]

http://www.cycleorings.com/petcock

[Zooks]

In Australia we prefer to keep our pet cocks in our trousers. The thing under the petrol tank is a petrol tap.


*Zooks wanders off muttering to himself* - "bloody silly 'mericans."

[constantproject]

^^^ lols australia is awesome

[Lawrence Johnson]

I'm sorry, but I can't resist this:

In Australia we prefer to keep our pet cocks in our trousers.

So chastity and celibacy are Australian virtues? Could have fooled me, but...

[tlepac]

Just in case everyone doesn't know not all petcocks have a prime position available. Mine only has On and Res

Terry

[Zooks]

I'm sorry, but I can't resist this:

In Australia we prefer to keep our pet cocks in our trousers.

So chastity and celibacy are Australian virtues? Could have fooled me, but...

LMAO - Smart arse