Petcock issues

[brewsky]

Got a repair kit about 3000 miles ago from ebay, (don't remember the vendor), and woke up to gas smell in the garage. No problems till this happened.
Petcock was off, but gas coming out of carb overflow.
So it looks like 2 issues at the same time.
Attached pics show the tearing of the rubber gaskets which caused the leak.
I didn't find any rough edges on the lever plate which could have snagged the gaskets.
Got a replacement kit from RetroBikes which appears to be from a different manufacturer and gives a choice of rubber or cork gaskets. (cork gasket is slightly thicker)
Wondering now if I should bend the spring tabs down some on the pinwheel to relieve some pressure?
Also looks like the fuel tube from the new kit needs some adjusting, as it extends thru the rubber and out the bottom end!!

[Mike Mullins]

FWIW, airhead BMW petcocks use a cork gasket on a tapered tap in the petcock body. Rebuilt mine ( when I had one) with sheet cork from the auto parts store. Just rebuilt the petcock on my CA 160 with a kit from Classic Honda Restorations: used the cork gasket instead of the rubber one: solved my leaking problems . I would use the cork gasket. It seems to absorb some of the gas and
expand and keeps itself sealed.
Mikeyrx

[brewsky]

I was all hyped up to use the cork, as I didn't have one in the last kit.
What has me worried is that it is thicker (0.16 vs 0.13") than the rubber, and you can see the bulging in the old rubber gaskets that matches the lever plate hole/slot from the (possibly excess) compression.
After installing the first kit, the lever was pretty tough to move by hand.
Since cork isn't as tough as rubber, I'm having second thoughts.

[Mike Mullins]

Give it a little coating of bearing grease ( I have used Belray waterproof grease for years on everything except toast) and it will help a lot. The cork is compressable, and that helps the seal. The grease also helps too, initially, I feel. The difference in thickness will not really be important. The CA 160 petcock I just rebuilt went together just fine with no problems, and seals nicely with no leakage. Initially the lever was somewhat "stiff" but the resistance to movement lessened after a couple of cycles.
Mike

[brewsky]

Thanks for the reply, Mike, I think I'll give it a shot.
I usually use WD40 on everything, but maybe I'll try the Belray this time.

[brewsky]

Ok, I smoothed the inside edges of the groove and hole in the lever plate with a whetstone and polished with a Dremel.

Soaked the cork gasket with oil, and installed everything back into the tank.

I didn't torque the screws all the way down so that the petcock metal seats against the tank metal as I did the first time.......just snugged them equally.

No leaks and reasonable lever friction feel.

Maybe over torqued the screws the first time.

[wargoth]

Have recently noticed alot of those packings "melting" recently. I believe that it may be caused by alchol in the fuel nowadays.
as far as the spring ring over the lever, a cheap and easy fix is to use a "o" ring in its place, but make sure to grease it thoroughly first.
also, is anybody here using a lead substitute in their fuel? Almost all engines built before the mid '70s dont have hard valve seats because they had lead to cushion them, Valves tend to recede without proper cushion in old heads, even in car heads. I have been using Bardahl "instead o lead" for years and was wondering if anyone had any better suggestions.