Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum

Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Iron Barrel => Topic started by: NJ Riff Raff on November 10, 2013, 12:34:52 am

Title: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: NJ Riff Raff on November 10, 2013, 12:34:52 am
I need to replace my petcock and I'd rather not get the OEM part as it's built pretty poorly in my opinion. Mine always leaked, the plastic bowl on the bottom would fall out and now has fallen out for good and won't stay. I have a 2008 Final Edition Iron Barrel 500 Bullet and I found this petcock

http://tinyurl.com/m3jwstv

that says it fits 2002 Bullets. Is there a reason it's saying 2002 Bullets and no other recent years?
Title: Re: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: ace.cafe on November 10, 2013, 01:03:30 am
You have to look under the tank and see which type of petcock mounting system you have. Some have a screw-on like that one in the picture, and the later ones seem to have a flange type that has two screws that hold it on to the tank.

So, if you look under there and see what kind you have, you'll know what you need to get.
Title: Re: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: NJ Riff Raff on November 14, 2013, 01:25:51 am
My gas tank has the nipple extending down with threads so I require the female type fuel tap which seems to be very hard to find other than the OEM one. I'd love to know what the thread size is on the nipple but don't have a way to gage it. I tired a couple of nuts but none would screw on. I guess it would be possible to cut this nipple of and tap the inside to have more replacement fuel tap options.

However I ended up fixing my fuel tap by taking a nut with a flange on it and the top of a carriage bolt and using JB Weld to make a new bottom where the broken leaky plastic bowl was. I know that does away with the filter that was inside the plastic bowl so I'm running an inline filter in the fuel line itself. I'll attach a picture. Working like a charm!
Title: Re: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: NJ Riff Raff on April 23, 2014, 07:19:30 pm
So my above fix did not last so I thought I would share with you what I did. I'm really pleased with the results.

Petcock conversion:

1: I used a hack saw to saw off the nipple with the male threads.

2: Filed down smooth.

3: Drilled out with 7/16 drill bit.

4: Tapped for National (NPT) Pipe Thread 1/4 -18 - Harbor Freight sells a set. You have to have a rather larger handle to fit the bit.

note: on both the drilling and tapping I dipped them in grease to catch the filings. Do both a little a time and wipe and dip again. I then poured Sea Foam into the tank and shake and drained to get out any last bit of filings. I did this three times.

7: Spray painted the where nipple is cut off.

8: Use yellow teflon tape on the threads to seal.

This is the new petcock I used. It looks great with my military bullet.

http://www.panicy.com/mini-petcock-straight-with-reserve/

I'm so happy to have moved away from the piece of junk petcock that came with my bike and open things up to use any 1/4 NPT petcock.



Title: Re: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: NJ Riff Raff on April 23, 2014, 07:20:41 pm
Remaining Pictures.

Title: Re: Fuel Tap Petcock Replacement
Post by: flyboy on April 24, 2014, 07:27:44 pm
Nice looking work Riff Raff. I may be doing the same very soon. Thanks for posting the pics too....wish more did that when explaining repairs.