It's nothing more than hyped up, scary, myth... until it happens to you...

I've purchased about 10 Savages, most bought for resale...
Several sellers had spent many hundreds of dollars at dealerships getting carb and engine work that wasn't needed, and didn't fix the bike, because of undiagnosed petcock failure...
My first Savage, the one I still ride now, was bought with a leaky petcock diaphragm.. it took me weeks to find it... (This was before the Raptor info existed, and before I was on this site)...

If you want to keep the stock petcock,... test it first, at the first sign of any running issue...  (Not saying that will be the problem, but just to rule it out)...
If you never want to deal with the problem,... get a Raptor...

A manual petcock fails in different way than a vacuum petcock... When the seals wear, a slow fuel weep starts from the petcock lever,.. that is the only way they ever fail, unless you break it off in a crash.. repair is 5 min. and $4...
The stocker will fool you into thinking a dozen different things, and will cause engine damage, and possible fire, while you try to figure it out..

This is not a safety feature, as many assume it to be (even most pro mechanics)..
It is a convenience feature to make a bike start-up more similar to a car...  

 
Serowbot, there is only two other persons I'd ask (and one won't talk about it) who has fixed, rebuilt and altered as many vac petcocks as you have.

Now that the replacement cost is only $16 shipped -- IF YOU PLANNED TO MOD YOUR BIKE (open up the air intake and exhaust system) TO INCREASE YOUR HORSEPOWER 10-20% OVER THE BONE STOCK SAVAGE SETUP, would you pro actively (pre emptively) remove the stock vacuum petcock system in total and replace it with a Raptor?

If so, or if no, why?

Lancer, how about you?  Got any knowledge to share about them fast engines and how to feed them with enough gasoline at full power?



Lancer, if you could buy that $16 petcock in bulk for $4 a piece and get some rubber plugs for the vac port (or a good rubber washer equipped short self-tapping screw that would thread into the brass ID of the vac port cleanly) then you could supply in kit form what will be needed out into the future.  Kit could include a large pleated paper fuel filter, the tubing & clamps for it and an instruction sheet.

 
Wambr,

In America they put alcohol in the gasoline to save the environment and make all the politicians and corn farmers happy.   It is stupid, but we do it anyway.   We think the alcohol may hurt the petcock's rubber diaphragm over time.

From Serobot: "If yer' gonna' ride a bike, learn to use a real petcock..."

Doesn't do much for motorcycles and scooters with fuel pumps instead of gravity feed.

Being sorta realistic, don't these scooters and such each have a forum who takes care of their needs?

Every brand/type of motorcycle does, it seems.

We take care of the Savage, and if you choose to go after the 10 hp that Suzuki wouldn't give to you stock then we have some good advice for you.  

Make sure to take off your stock vac petcock at the start of your journey -- this will keep you from tripping over it 5-6 times along the way.

It will also protect your engine from some minor level "lean out" damage that will likely occur from the petcock running your float bowl dry repeatedly if you leave the vacsucker on there.

Digger wrote on 08/25/12 at 18:55:40:

i repeat
I can't say that in Russia's petrol-is it really gasoline, but it has no smell of VODKA Grin
and my bike with 47000км and the age of 18 years goes fairly quickly.

Oldfeller--FSO wrote on 08/25/12 at 22:06:48:


That is true. The effect, as far as the user is concerned, is identical and transparent. You turn on the ignition and start the machine. Fuel flow is controlled automatically, as it should be. There are also vacuum operated fuel pumps, which depend on vacuum pulses for their operation. My comment was aimed at the mentality behind the idea that real bikers need a real petcock.

To add a clinker, and a source of complaint, bikes with electric fuel pumps often have a "bank angle sensor" which shuts off the pump if the bike goes down. Honda had a recall on some Gold Wings for a bank angle sensor which was so sensitive it would sometimes trip during parking lot maneuvers, causing the engine to stall and often causing the rider to drop the bike when he was expecting power.

And I didn't even vote in the poll, because I have had both petcock and carburetor problems over the years I have been riding motorcycles - and driving cars, too. I even had a vacuum petcock problem on a 1983 Suzuki GR650 Tempter. The petcock sprang an external leak around the operating handle, which had no effect on its operation and was not related to the vacuum parts. It was replaced under warranty. I had a carburetor problem on a Honda Elite 80 scooter, where the medium speed jet had apparently not been properly tightened on initial assembly. It fell out into the bottom of the float bowl, and caused the scooter to lose power. That scooter, by the way, has a vacuum operated fuel valve, which had no influence whatever on the problem. Were it stated somewhere that the answers to the poll must be strictly related to the Savage/S40, I'd have had to go with no problems at all.