Topic: Petcock and carbs not friends. Idea.

[Elniniomuchachos]

So I have a project that I have been working on and am in the finishing stages. It's a 76 550 with 77 carbs and a 76 tank. Since the petcock from the earlier tanks have two spigots and the later model carbs only have one fuel inlet there are problems with my fuel line routing.

As of now I have two lines coming from the petcock going to a T then a inline fuel filter delivering into the carb inlet. My problem is that there really isn't enough room for all of this line, I can't even get my tank to sit flat with it like this. So I was thinking what if I put a cap on one of the spigots on the petcock and ran a single line. This would clean up alot of my mess.

Questions:
If I block off one of the spigots will fuel delivery be compromised?
Is one spigot for reserve?
Does anyone else have this problem?

[KingCustomCycles.com]

One spigot is fine, it will flow freely.  Do make sure the fuel is falling throughout its trip to the carb inlet or it may not feed under high flow conditions.  Also, there are those that rely upon the tank finger screen as the only filter and shun the inline filter for reasons of fuel feed.

[fastbroshi]

He's right Nino, I had a loop in my line for a while, and I seemed to always need to go on the reserve REALLY early.  Cut some length out of the hose and Ta-DA, no problemo.

[Elniniomuchachos]

Thanks for the replies guys. I'm going to see if I can find some sort of cap this morning and see if I can't get this stuff legitimately setup.

[scottly]

Don't try to use the vacuum caps they sell at the car parts stores. They will work for a while, but they won't hold up to constant exposure to fuel. If you do use them for a short-term fix, be sure to turn off the petcock when the bike is parked. 

[mrbreeze]

Great post. I was gonna do some asking about this also. I got a newly painted tank from Johnny 5 for my 75 750K and the tank is a 74'. The 75' tank was left side and 1 outlet petcock. The 74' is right side and 2 outlet. I had one outlet going to 1 & 2 carbs and the other to 3 & 4. It was acting up on me so I plugged one oulet off and ran a tee off of the other. I used a piece of plastic fuel line with a little piece of rod stuffed in it for the plug. I noticed that when I opened the petcock with no hoses on it.....gas only came out of one outlet although when I blocked it with my finger ..it would come out of the other oulet. I think what I need to do at this point is make sure the hoses aren't heading uphill before the carbs like King is saying. It ran fine but acted up way before it was completely out of gas. Other things already mentioned don't use regular vacuum plugs to plug the other outlet because they won't stand up to gas. The other thing is don't run in line filters. They will give you problems at extended high RPM's such as jammin' down the highway.

[Elniniomuchachos]

Yesterday I got my fuel line issues sorted out
I used a small piece of line with a bolt forced into it. Works pretty well, no leaks or anything. I will probably seek out a more legit way to fix this down the line, but as for now it's working and the bike is getting fuel.

Thanks again guys!