the petcock syndrome

[delarbreavous]

I'm not a mechanic and I'm not sure if I understand correctly the problem with the elbow tubing (tube inserted in the petcock by the manufacturer) but wouldn't it be simpler just to change the petcock with a new part? 38.00$ is not a lot of money to make sure you wont burn your FJ down. Dan and Craigo scared me with their stories and broken or not this will be the first thing I change on my bike.

Alain

[Marsh White]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this was only an issue on the 84-85 FJs.

[craigo]

Alain,

My FJ did not burn because of the petcock problem discussed by Dan.  I may have not described that well enough in my post. I just posted the pics to show what happens to a FJ when it meets it's end in a fire.  Sorry to scare you like that, but what Dan offered as a fix is valid.

CraigO
90FJ1200

[delarbreavous]

Thanks for the clarification Craigo.

I found out there are at least 3 different petcocks for the FJ ranging from 26.00$ to 117.00$.

Do they all have this problem??

[craigo]

I am not sure, but my 90 seems to be in there good and tight.  I have owned 3 1990 FJs and never had a problem.  Your's looks to be an 89 which is the same bike, just different color.  Marsh said in an earlier post that he thought it's a red bike (1984-85) problem, but best to wait for clarification from one of the experts here.

Cheers, 

CraigO
90FJ1200

[pdxfj]

I believe the issue only really effects the early bikes (84-87) because of the way the fuel line must be run.

If you didn't run the fuel line correctly it puts pressure on the petcock outlet and can cause the pressed in fitting to work loose.  Plus removing and installing the fuel line in a rough manner can stress the fitting as well.  With the later bikes the fuel line was run differently because of the fuel pump. 

I've had the petcock issue on my '87 and fixed it.  The fitting was loose enough to rotate around, but thankfully not enough to fall out.

[weymouth399]

The later model (fuel pump models) bikes are not as bad. The 84-87/88 models have gravity/vacum petcocks they have more issues. But any factory style petcock can fail this way
In the US the late model petcocks are cheap $30-40. The 86-87 are $175 retail 84-85 $142 not so cheap
Hope this helps, fire is scary shit if you smell gas look into it might save they old girl.

Bob W

[Pat Conlon]

With Dan's reminder, here's a little diddy I put together for the Files section: http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=3265.msg27126

[Dan Filetti]

Thanks Pat!  Look mom!  I made the files section!!

Dan