Can anyone recommend a petcock ?

[Bob KellyIII]

My 2012 Kawasaki Ninja 250R has the standard vacuum operated petcock on it
right now..... However you CANNOT turn off the gas and run the bike till the carbs are empty before storing it for the winter... this means the gas sits in the carbs all winter unless you want to fight taking off the fairings to get to the drain screw at the bottom of the carbs.
this is enough frustration for me to replace the petcock with a petcock that will actually turn OFF the gas !
so does anyone know of a petcock that will just bolt onto the tank like the stock version but has a handle on it so you can actually turn off the gas ???
.....
there's no doubt I will have to cut a hole in the side cover to actually get to it
or drill a hole for a special tool made to turn off the gas.... but something has got to be done.....
Yes I have to pull the carbs once again to clean them because it sat over the winter and will not run..... my XR650L does not have this problem because I turn off the gas and run the carb dry....
...this is with stabul 360 in the gas....and it still screwed up the Ninja....
didn't bother any of my other bikes ....just the ninja ! ....
its very Aggravating !
Bob.......

[ducatiman]

is there room for the previous generation (extended length)petcock to fit?

give ebay a look see, some listed are under $10

[Bob KellyIII]

um.... man I dunno ! usually parts will interchange between year models
but some won't that have been re-engineered
.... I don't have a problem with the idea of the vacuum operated petcock it's just there is no way to actually turn off the gas and I think that is super stupid
..... that more like a Ford or chevy thing LOL.....
it's a motorcycle your supposed to be able to turn off the gas ! that's silly !
....
Bob.......

[Triple Jim]

You trade one disadvantage for another when going to the pregen petcock. That one doesn't have a "prime" position, so if the bike has been sitting for a while, you either have a lot of cranking before the carbs fill, or you have to pull the vacuum hose off the vacuum port, put a tube on it, and suck for a few seconds.

[Bob KellyIII]

that is why I just wanted an after market petcock that has on off and reserve
.....you know like they used to make !
I would rather get away from vacuum operated petcocks completely !
.....
Bob....

[Bob KellyIII]

I thought of a better option .....
rather than replacing the petcock I'll just put a valve on the line with enough length in the lines to reach down to the gap in the fairing and the engine and stick the valve there.... that solves getting another petcock and sense there is nothing wrong with the petcock in it,.... it will give me a way to run the carbs out of gas for storage.
.....
I got the fairings off and tank loose... just gott'a get enough gumption to get out there and pull the tank off then pull the carbs.... but I have to take the battery out move the air box and a bunch of other stuff to get to the point of pulling the carbs out.... but I'm making progress.... it be hot out side !
.....
LOL I went out there and had the carbs off in 10 minutes ! ...piece of cake !
now the fun part begins....can I get them clean enough to Run again !?????
and I noticed that the carbs were completely dry.... so it may be time to rebuild the petcock afterall !
(probably why it wouldn't start in the first place... no gas no run !!!!!)
....





Bob......

[Bob KellyIII]

OH WOW..... both Carbs had Gelled gasoline in them !....
so I took out all the jets and sprayed carb cleaner in them and made sure the pilot jet circuit was squirting good... cleaned them up and put them back together... only thing i didn't do was pop off the choke parts.... ( probably should have) but I sprayed enough in both carbs so that even it should be clean !
I'll put them back on tomorrow and see if it'll run again
I did find one of the o rings missing in the fuel air screw.... i think it disintegrated i did find a round rubber looking thing about 1/8" long and I think that was what was left of that O ring !
don't have any replacements that small so I put it back together without it....
if it don't idle right I'll know why !
I set the air screws about 1/4 turn rich from stock setting on both carbs because last time I had to open them up alot just to get it to run ...like 1/2 turn on each..... I guess it's my altitude !
.... ANYWAY that suprised me to find gelled gas in the carbs ...I probably should flush the tank too if that's the case Uh !
(its 3/4 full of gas, regular with stabul 360 in it )
.....
both main jets were totally plugged as were the pilot jets.... i feel confident I found the problem why it wouldn't start and run ! LOL......
....
Bob....

[ducatiman]

i'll submit that after adding Stabil 360 into your tank, you failed to run the engine long enough for the 360/fuel to reach the carbs. I've NEVER encountered gelled carbs or fuel when using 360...on the contrary I've run my 900ss on the original fuel (with 360 added) used in winter storage.

[Bob KellyIII]

that's quite possible ! i admit it ! ....
I wish I could say that I put the gas in the tank and took it for a ride.....but i didn't I just ran it for a few minutes reved it a few times and killed it.
.....
so now we know !!!
I saw that Chicanic on youtube recommends "ethanol shield" not sta-bul 360 !
she showed a test she did and nothing took out the water better than "Ethanol Shield"
....
she also said that Sta-bul 360 will gel if its left in there too long....
so .....maybe that was older than 2 years .....i dunno LOL
....
it's funny though...I've never seen gasoline gel like that....it wasn't a solid lump more like cottage cheese that kind'a plopped out of the float bowl..... small curd style..... and yellow...... it looked gross ! LOL
not what you want to see in your carburetors !!!!!( that's why they didn't leak gas when I took them off and out!....i thought they were empty....)


Bob....

[Bob KellyIII]

well, poo ! it'll be a week before I get the parts I need for the ninja so I guess it's plenty of time to flush the tank and clean up the lines i.e. replace the filter....
i bought some fuel line from Amazon and 2 metal on off valves ...but shipping time has regressed sense covid and what used to take 2 days now takes 5 days... Grrrrr.
.....
I plan to take it for a 10 mile run once I get it going again.....
....
Bob...

[Bob KellyIII]

Ouch ! I am having buyers remorse right now.... I just spent $375.00 on a seat concepts "Low comfort Seat" for the XR650L....
.... I really do hope it doesn't turn out to be too tall..... it says it is 1" lower than the stock seat but I cut 2" to 2.5" out of the stock one and put the cover back on it ( did a horrible job of that too !)
but what ever it is I think I will live with it regardless of the seat height !
I haven't been riding the bike all this year because it hurts my butt so I decided to bite the bullet and get it.... it's 2 tone red and black so it will match the Red machine !
..... seats are very expensive now days !
.....
Bob........

[Bob KellyIII]

Hay the gas line and metal valves showed up today.... I hope 1/4" is big enough !
looks very small compared to the stock line...
ahh well. I'll fumble through with something !
....
Bob.......

[Triple Jim]

If that's 1/4" ID I'm sure it'll be fine. The little 250 doesn't need a huge flow.

[Bob KellyIII]

thanks Jim....it's just getting the 1/4" line on the 3mm or 5mm fittings I guess a phillips and WD-40 help with that.
....the gave me a bunch of those spring clamps with the hose I think I will use regular screw type hose clamps instead !
....
later ! Bob.......

[Triple Jim]

If the tubing is 1/4" ID it should be loose on 3mm or 5mm barbs. 5mm is just under 0.20".

[Bob KellyIII]

lol ok I dunno what size they are their bigger than 1/4" line I think ...
who knows ! I'm not going to go out there and do that today it's too cold....
we had a cold front come in and I'm still in summer mode !
so fooie on it ! LOL
....
Bob

[Bob KellyIII]

Crazy damm weather ! now it's too hot ! can't make me happy ! HA !
I did get the bike all hooked up and put on that little shut off valve took the vacuum line off the petcock and put on another one that I could suck on to get gas to flow.... did that and got gas to the carbs.. hit the starter and turned on the choke and she sprang to life
running real good in fact ! so I ran it a bit and checked everything and I have gas leaks !
the main one under the tank going to the carbs a drip about every 5 seconds..... but can't have that....
I tightened the clamp and turned off the new shut off valve and ran it for about 5 minutes and it never did run out of gas.... so I got disgusted and turned it off and I'll fix the gas leaks and then try it again..... if I can get the gas leaks fixed I'll put the fairings back on it and take it for a ride !
that is the old gas by the way..... I had filled the tank last fall and added StaBul 360 in it ( more than it called for) and did the same for the XR650L ... and it starts and runs just fine so I figured what the heck I'll give it a try...I have a inline filter on it so any goop that comes through from the tank should get trapped in the in line filter.
....
so the carb cleaning worked and it runs really good I think I won't know for sure till I take it out and get her up to speed.
....
it's really nice when something actually goes Right ! LOL
.....
Bob......

[Bob KellyIII]

lol.... i went out to the 250R Ninja and turned off the gas by that little metal valve I put on the gas line and hit the choke and turned the key on and hit the starter and it didn't make a full revolution and fired right up..... my goal here was to see how long it would take to
run out of gas..... I think it was about 4 minutes before it finally would not take throttle and then shut down like I turned off the key....
that's a long time !.... with my XR650L it's about a minute and a half to 2 minutes Max
.... but it only gets around 30MPG too ! LOL
I fixed the gas line leak too... moved the clamp a bit and that cured it.
....
I remembered that I put a NON-Opp on the ninja so I don't have the current licenses on it.... so I'd best not take it too far ! ( but I do know the back roads so I think I can do it and get away with it!) i just want to make sure it pulls hard like it should ...under load!
.....
so now I get to put the fairings back on and give her a good cleaning ! check the air in the tires and oil the chain.... and she's good to go !
....
I had that thing for sale for $2500 bucks for at least 2 months only got 2 inquiries
....I did say it would not run.... and I wasn't going to fix it for them for that little.
now I can tell them it runs but I won't lower my price to less than 3k....
.....
I don't need 4 bikes ! I gott'a thin the herd !
...

Bob......

[Mohawk]

Be careful extending the vacuum line as to long & it won't work well especially if it flexible. But you could add a valve to the vacuum line with the control under the seat. If you fit an electric air valve then you can wire it to an ignition live feed & add an on/off switch in the circuit to the valve.

[Bob KellyIII]

ahh ! thanks for the info. yah I would think that a soft vacuum line to the petcock could cause problems !
However, I'm not extending the vacuum line at all... just the gas line to the carb because I want to be able to turn off the gas to the carbs so I can run them dry for winter storage... I've had trouble keeping the carbs clean/running good because the bike is rarely ran... it mostly sits. so the Ninja is the only one that I cannot shut off the flow of gas to the carbs... and I decided to fix that.... just added some line from the petcock down to a valve I picked up off Amazon and back to the carbs....
works great.... I dunno if that will cure the problem but I figure running the carbs dry before I store it for the winter couldn't hurt..... it works a treat for the other bikes I have....haven't had a bit of trouble with them....
time will tell.... takes a long time to run the carbs dry though...it took about 5 minutes after shutting off the gas ! LOL
.....
Bob.........

[Bob KellyIII]

well, I started putting the fairings back on the Ninja and it started to rain.... I got the top half of it done anyway..... waited about 2 hrs and went out and finished the job !
.... so it's finally ready to sell now.....
I'm asking $3000.00 for it
I live in weed,CA. if anyone wants it you come and get it ! ....Cash for clean title with a non opp. on the licenses !
.... I hate to sell it but I need the money to buy wood pellets for winter heat !
...
Bob......

[Bob KellyIII]

if your curious you can see the add I put in Creig's list in Siskiyou county california, the photo's are not recent ( last years ) but close enough
2 show the bike without the back rack and box and 2 with.
.....
Bob......