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General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> petcock position
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Message started by suzi-q on 05/07/10 at 19:56:01

Title: petcock position
Post by suzi-q on 05/07/10 at 19:56:01

hi all. yesterday i went for ride with a good buddy after doing the plug cap thing and the bike seemed to run out gas when the petcock was on on ran fine with it on reserve and ran out of gas. so twice he gave me a cup of gas and made it to the gas station and filled it. so on the way home i put the petcock in the on position and all seems fine. what happen? thanx

Title: Re: petcock position
Post by Serowbot on 05/07/10 at 21:26:07

What happen?... you ran out of gas...

on.. is for normal running...
reserve... is a little extra gas for when you judge wrong and run out of gas while running on,.on......
prime... is only for special circumstances... if the bike has been sitting for a couple of weeks,... if you have just been working on the carb, or had the tank off... or any time the bike may have an empty float bowl...
or, like maybe if you just ran it completely out of gas... an empty float bowl needs primed...
You should only ever need to run on prime for a minute or two,.. just to get gas into the bowl, then back to on for running...

Title: Re: petcock position
Post by Routy on 05/07/10 at 21:33:58

These bikes are equipped w/ a vacuum operated petcock, which means anytime the petcock is in the on position, the engine must be running to keep fuel flowing to the carb. If this vacuum operated valve ever fails, turning it to prime will bypass the vacuum system to keep fuel flowing to the carb.

Title: Re: petcock position
Post by Charon on 05/08/10 at 05:25:49

I very seldom use PRIme. Last fall, when I put the bike away for the winter, I drained the carburetor. This spring when I got it back out, I put the petcock in PRIme while I checked the air in the tires. Then I put it back ON, and will most likely not use PRIme again unless I do some carburetor work or drain the carb again this fall. Even after sitting for two or three weeks, the bike starts right up without PRIme.

My Ninja also has a vacuum petcock, but has OFF instead of PRIme. Kawasaki just says to crank it until it starts. With the usual caveat about not running the starter for too long at one time.

Title: Re: petcock position
Post by EJID on 05/11/10 at 16:07:11

My bike sat in the ON position from the last week of Nov to the 3rd week of March while I had snow on the ground and the muffler off for a while. When I finally got the muffler put back on, I made sure I charged the battery and rolled it out into the driveway and cranked it a few times with the choke out and she fired right up ;D Rode another 30 miles or so on last November's gas and then filled it up with some fresh gas where I put in a couple of ounces of sea-foam that I meant to do before the winter :(

Guess my point was that I haven't messed with my petcock other than when I've had to use reserve, or when I drained the tank to paint it 8-)