And there is nothing wrong with you religiously maintaining a slowly failing vac petcock to keep it going yet another year.

I quote the personally knowledgeable Serobot,

1/3 have had issues with their vac petcock,
1/3 are gonna have issues with their vac petcock and
1/3 will NEVER have issues with their vac petcocks.

Serobot and I are in the first group, Ralfyguy is in the second group (he is being very careful not to get into the first group, but he smells it coming from over the future horizon ...) and I truly hope Routy stays in the third group as it would break his heart if it happened to him.



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I guess I'll put the crow back into the freezer, he ain't thawed out completely yet so he's still good for another try later on.





Let's see, if Routy were to move from one group to another (and admit it) that would be a crowable event, right?

ralfyguy wrote on 08/22/11 at 04:33:44:

Now that you mentioned it, mine did turn hard for a while too,.....forget what I did to fix it. W/ my failing memory, you don't suppose I raptorized it do you ???
Curious, how old was this pethingy that didn't have a broken diaphram yet ?

Routy,

I thinks that we all thinks that the cracking of the diaphragm is about the dead last failure mode in the vac death symptom time line.

1)  Vac line getting cracked/holey is the first item in the time line.  (note:  this time line assumes you fix the vac hose and keep it fixed by yearly replacement or honestly, you will never get past step #1 -- dead in the water right there)  year 5-10

2)  Diaphragm getting partially stiff and failing to flow enough gas at full speeds is the second item in the time line.   years 7-15

3)  "False reserve" indications start somewhere about here too.  years 7-15

4)  Getting an occasional (rare) stuck float at the ends of float bowl travel (3 raps with the screwdriver handle fixes it) starts somewhere around here too.  years 7-15

5)  Diaphragm getting so stiff you can't start the scoot sometimes after it dies on you comes next.  years 15-25

6)  Last comes diaphragm pinhole/crack death and the gush of gasoline down into the air box and the sump.    years 15-25

Nobody waits until the 5th and 6th level to change it out to a Raptor
(or if they are among the faithful, put in a rebuild kit or buy another $80 factory vacsucker).  
They get off their dead arses and do something about it.

The smart ones are reading along on our as yet unproven discussions about repeated lean outs potentially hurting your engine and are jumping ship at #2 or #3.  They don't want to deal with #2 or #3 and they DURN WELL KNOW #4 can potentially hurt their engine.  

(Verslagen too agrees that cylinder wall gasoline wash down can cause engine damage, he has said so)


So, you talking like waiting until #6 is what defines petcock failure is sorta disingenuous -- not even your other ever faithful vac petcock crew members think that way any more.  

And nobody with a brain is gonna wait past #4 as the current consensus seems to be real engine damage can potentially start around there.  

First indication that #4 may be in the cards -- DO something about it.

Test method to even show that a vac pethingy even is working at all on shut off that is your baby to do, not mine.    You have to have an installed vac petcock to work on that test, so right now the pool of senior possible workers is a bit limited.

Right now, until you do publish your "working good" test -- officially nobody knows if a vac petcock is working correctly or not.  

Other than that, they can refer to the time line above to spot where they are on the road to total vac petcock failure.


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Yep, a wise person would stay out of this heated discussion, although it is resulting in some additional information that is useful.


Also, if you are interested in having any input into the time line discussion I am modifying it to accommodate the good points that are raised -- Routy just made one just above and it is now incorporated in the time line.

When we get all the ugly dents pounded out of it's bodywork -- likely it is going into the Tech Section appended to the very end of Serobot's Tech post -- so if you got a thought on that time line a couple of posts up please share it.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 08/22/11 at 06:14:24:

Jog,
Tell me, wouldn't it be easier to go out to your bike, jerk the hose off the carberator, shake it.....not over 3 times, go have a beer....or 3 max, come back, check if the hose is dry on the very end ?

But then, I always did believe in the KIS method.

 

                 Boule, you gonna make me bust myself laughin'  ----  I wanna shirt if you actually make any


Danger here is we might actually start talking real politics -- and that would be a faster death than sucklessness.

And the temptation to draw parallels between vac petcocks and current and/or past presidents might be too hard for the non-disciplined among us to resist.

Here's a black mark for your petcock paranoid crew...
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1313419518/11#11

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From my own experience...

I purchased the '96 in '05.  I ran the petcock for about a year with no problems.  Then needed to run it on reserve all the time.  Then noticed a drop of gas in the vac line so I swapped it for an '02.  Still running fine.

The '88 leaked from the get go, rebuilt with kit.

I use "cheap a$$" 3/16 vac line, it gets hard after a year.  With multiple tank removals a year for various maitenance, it don't last long.  Same with the fuel line.

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