Petcock Rebuild Tip

[Walking Eagle]

Greetings to all,

I just finished a Randakk-rebuild on the petcock from '80 GL1100 Nude. Randakk is The Man, and his directions for rebuild are spot-on.

One item that may help with the very scary yet curiously satisfying drill-out/re-tap of the rivets on the 1100s is to MOUNT THE PETCOCK ON A BOARD WITH A COUPLE OF WOODSCREWS (carefully - this is pot metal here). You can then clamp this board (plywood works best - nice and flat) to the table of your drill press for a precise, vertical hole. You can probably do this with a hand-drill or "drill-stand," but a steady hand and eye and an uncanny sense of absolute vertical are all necessary items to bring to the party if you do it this way.

There is NO room for error, here, as the 3mm hole you have to drill takes up a lot of the available space, so if you don't have a drill press, go borrow one or get one from Harbor Freight for under $50. Many uses for the d.p. beyond drilling out the rivets of a petcock!

Second observation: You'll drill the 3mm hole all the way through the rivet-section/petcock body FIRST (per instructions). Part two is to drill out the remainder of the rivet with a LARGER DRILL THAN 3MM. You want a drill bit big enough to take the "roll" of the rivet-top off. You can see that you have to be VERY VERY careful with this step, or you'll be on e-Bay, looking for a replacement petcock body. Trick is to just drill far enough to feel the top plate "release" from the pressure of the funny wavy spring that lies just beneath the face-plate. You WILL be able to feel/observe this, as the spring is, well, springy. It looked to me as if the "big" hole has to go pretty deep, and this gets worrisome. . .but ya gotta get deep enough for the release.

Connected with the above spring comment, you may notice that the face-plate may not "sit down" all the way atop the petcock body when you're done, despite your freshly-tapped screw holes working as advertised, and the screws tight (but not too tight, please -- remember that pot metal thing). Randakk points out that this small "gap" won't cause a leak, as the leak-proofing happens with the wavy-spring and new fancy red high-zoot gasket. At least, that's the theory. I've not leak-tested mine, yet, but I trust Randakk.

Hope this helps some other garage-Monk.

Regards, and good wrenching

Walking Eagle

[Roady]

Excellent writeup and a good tutorial.

I've moved this to the How To 4-Wings forum.

Thanks, gotta do mine soon.

[RB]

Easier/safer way to remove the roll of the rivet..use grinder and lightly touch face of the roll until it's gone..or grinning wheel on a drill touch and look until roll gone..at least IMHO>

[heraldhamster]

agreed! never done any of my petcocks yet, but I like my Dremel[tm] for removing rivets.

[Fred Camper]

Is there a way to procure the petcock rebuild spring and gasket less buying a 4 carb rebuild kit?

[Rat]

He sells it as a separate kit.

Gord

[Fred Camper]

He sells it as a separate kit.

Gord

TY Gord, learned something. Now that was easy!