'83 Fuel petcock housing leaking

[gmac]

The housing is seeping on my '83. Took it apart last night and put a thin coat of RTV on both sides of the diaphrams, let it sit over nights, put it back on today. Worked for a few minutes and started leaking again (didn't figure it would work, but was hopeing the gas couldn't get to the silicon).

Any ideas for a fix? Don't have the funds for a rebuild (BTW, does the guy that started doing the '83 rebuilds a few years ago still do them and can someone direct me to his contact information for when I can afford it (did a search but can't find the old posts))?

Thanks.

Gary

[YellowJacket!]

Lucky has (at least the last time I looked) posted instructions for repairing the 83 petcocks on his website.  He built a jig which holds the rubber material down so you can cut the proper pattern.
www.xz550.com

david

[Rick G]

That infernal petcock is the Achilles heal of the '83. Lucky is probably your only hope, unless one shows up on eBay.
Some time back I had a conversation  with V'nary ,Humber , we discussed ways to use an '82 petcock.
There are several Suzuki  manual petcocks , which might be used. If you get stumped , send me a pm and I'll relate what we came up with.

[Lucky]

you need to first clean it, get the aluminum body clean!  then you have to assess where the corrosion is bad enough to cause a leak.  the 'seats' where the 2 orings seal must be smooth & free of pitting.  this is where the internal leak comes from (petcock doesn't shut off) 

the 4 hole rubber washer likewise must be in good shape or again it'll leak..  the Sirrus 82 petcock kits have this seal as well as lots of other petcocks...

finally, they corrode the worst where the oval oring seals between the petcock &tank meet. you may have to jbweld/epoxy this back up & carefully recreate the gone parts...

[supervision]

 I have a pair of 83 carbs, that maybe someday, I'll get the energy to install on my 82 bike/peacock. The way the top of the 83 carbs are, is actually nothing speical, all they are is doing is putting gas at both fittings.  So if you plug one of the fittings your have a 82.  I probably will just tee my line and supply gas to both fittings.  Maybe the 83's will make power, and the 82 peacock won't keep up, but I dought it will happen.  I do need more power, Dwight just got a 10,000 mile motor, it is gona be hard to keep him in sight.

[gmac]

Lucky,

Funny thing is the aluminum looks good and clean, I figured the diaphrams were seeping, but they look pretty solid too. I took the valve off tonight and the Sirrus washer is hard as a rock and falling apart, wondering if anyone else has had problems with them (granted it's 5 years old, but the original (about 20 at that time) was in better shape than this one).

Looks like the 4 hole was used on a number of bikes (both Yamaha and Kawi) so hopeing the dealer has one in stock.

Petcock to tank does not leak, I got lucky when I went through everyting 5 years ago and caught any rust early at that time, cleaned ip up really well, and painted it. Looks good there.

One step at a time I guess.

Thanks again.

Gary

[Lucky]

Ok, so yeah, start with replacing the 4 hole washer. you can also give a little more 'spring' to the wave washer by bending it slightly...

[Lucky]

I have a pair of 83 carbs, that maybe someday, I'll get the energy to install on my 82 bike/peacock. The way the top of the 83 carbs are, is actually nothing speical, all they are is doing is putting gas at both fittings.  So if you plug one of the fittings your have a 82.  I probably will just tee my line and supply gas to both fittings.  Maybe the 83's will make power, and the 82 peacock won't keep up, but I dought it will happen.  I do need more power, Dwight just got a 10,000 mile motor, it is gona be hard to keep him in sight.

Super, sorry, that's wrong, the 2 fittings on the top are return fuel comming out of the carb, although aparently you can tee back in to the line closet to the tank, or so i've heard...

[supervision]

 Yea I agree, the design was to pull fuel around in a circle, maybe to stop vapor locking.  If you just put fuel to both, it become's a 82

[gmac]

Got the washer, or valve as is is decribed on the Yamaha parts diagrams - BTW, I know most of you know this, but in case you don't you can get the parts diagrams on the web. The dealers (and Yamaha's site where I found it) usually don't go back to '83, but a lot of other sites do such as http://www.yamahapartshouse.com/ (click on Yamaha Parts Lookup, they go back to '63).

Another tip, if your dealer doesn't have the Yamaha part (3H3-24253-00-00) ask them about Kawaski part # 11009-1188 . That's what I found close to home and it looks identical, plus the Kawi part is about $4.50 and Yamaha wants about $12 for it.

Found the cross reference to the Kawi part here:
http://www.cyclewareables.com/pages/petcock_repair_parts/petcock_diaphragms_o_ring.htm
Worth a look, some good info.

Anyway, the valve doesn't leak know, but I am getting some seeping off the housing, starting to think it was coming from the valve in the first place (a DUH moment), so the project tommorow is to take it apart again and clean all the RTV out and see what happens.

[gmac]

Looked close at the diaphrams, holding the internal one up to the light there is a crack on the top side about half way around, all I need is some liquid rubber that dries pliable and doesn't dissolve in gas, haven't found that yet.

Put it back together tonight, left the plastic spacer with the diaphrams out, put the back cover on and a thick cork gasket between them. Nothing leaks around the petcock, doesn't dribble out the drain lines so the needles must be seating OK. Will need to get a couple of manual shuf off's. But at least my son can ride tommorow.

Still going to pursue a mod that will work.