finally found decent fuel taps at a reasonable price

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acadian

acadian

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these are great little units (though there's no reserve version), well built, look quite nice, and don't leak!

finally found decent fuel taps at a reasonable price


picked mine up from northern eagle cycle; http://www.northerneagle.ca/Fuel%20Fittings.htm
 
If the gauze unscrews then you should be able to shorter the standpipe to make it a reserve.
 
kommando said:
If the gauze unscrews then you should be able to shorter the standpipe to make it a reserve.
Click to expand...

It will act as a reserve as is. A modification is needed to not let all the fuel out and form a main.
They do look quite nice. Maybe a petrol proof tube over the gauze rather than inside as it might impede flow. Is heatshrink ethonal proof?
 
They look good, but at more than twice the price of the standard taps, they ought to. Also, they are currently sold out.
 
They are all the same source, the part number is the same and Grins also has them in the UK and also a 1/8 BSP version.

Maybe Wassells are sourcing better product at last.
 
Dommie Nator said:
kommando said:
If the gauze unscrews then you should be able to shorter the standpipe to make it a reserve.
Click to expand...

It will act as a reserve as is. A modification is needed to not let all the fuel out and form a main.
They do look quite nice. Maybe a petrol proof tube over the gauze rather than inside as it might impede flow. Is heatshrink ethonal proof?
Click to expand...

I was thinking a length of aluminium tube ought to do the trick
 
Were you able to get them to tighten up and keep the handle where you wanted? Not always easy as they don't look long enough for a adjustment nut.
 
gtsun said:
Were you able to get them to tighten up and keep the handle where you wanted? Not always easy as they don't look long enough for a adjustment nut.
Click to expand...

primary side handle points a bit more inwards than the timing side, but I'm not picky about those things.
 
My friend Wilson Pluck uses some very similar on his Royal Enfield & has started modifying them to be used on the Indians that he restores as the stock ones always leak. He has very thin shim washers he uses to get the handles in the exact right place...
 
I found a grease that makes almost any of the fuel petcocks I have work like new. It is called EZ Turn. It is a fuel resistant grease. I realized I was missing something when I bought some brand new petocks, the old brass type that came on 70s Bonnevilles and Commados. I had always thought these taps were not that good, because I only ever had old ones.

The new ones were beautiful and smooth in operation, they still are after several months use. I realized the main difference was probably the assembly grease which still seems to be hanging in there and allowing nice smooth and leak free operation. I asked a friend who is an aviation mechanic about what this grease was, and he gave me a small sample which would be a lifetime supply except that now I have found other uses for this grease as well.

Now I use it on my paint gun, tolune doesn't seem to wash it away so the needle doesn't stick in the seal. I also used it on some gaskets.

I used it on some 24 year old industrial type petcocks that I have on my Norton and it makes them work like new too.

You can buy that grease from Aircraft Spruce.

Nigel
 
According to a friend who makes petcocks for Indians he found EZY Turn grease doesn't hold up to modern gas. So he talked to EZY TURN's tech guys two weeks ago & they said it will not hold up to ethanol gas but they are trying to find a way to make it work..
 
Never found a better tap than BAPs. Tried lots of different ones and they all leaked eventually. BAPs have never leaked and are still going strong on several of my bikes after 10+ years.
 
And if the BAPs do leak after 25 years, they can be rebuilt.
This old one had the rubber gasket become hard and set so it did leak a bit.
I made replacement gaskets out of thick cork material.
finally found decent fuel taps at a reasonable price
 
Think you will find a Company in Birmingham has been having these type brass taps (gas taps as I call them) manufactured by the same Company who made them a zillion years ago when the British motor cycle industry still existed....the new ones I have sitting on the book shelf behind me are the proper ones with tapered spindle held in pla\ce by a spring and nut......
If those Wassell ones are as good as the Wassell Commando fibre friction plate I have in front of me they wont be much use!! Not only is the friction material semi flexable but the inner spline comes NO WHERE near fittinjg a CORRECTLY splined centre and requires some very serious filing if they are to fit the involute splines of a correctly manufactured centre......and the shear stength of the material is only approx 2,000 lb per sq inch where as the original solid fibre Don International DON 112 material ones used by Norton had a shear strength of approx 9,000 lb per sq inch to ensure the driving ears did not drop off within a few miles of use ........Guess why Surflex / Rimoldi Commando friction plates have an alloy core......
Some of us tend to have bits tested BEFORE we use them!!
 
Mr Leadbeater is obviously living in another dimension

Wassell have been selling the brass taper type taps manufactured in Birmingham for many decades and still do to this day
This new tap has stainless steel ball valve internals with teflon seals like a household gas tap ( AS ETHANOL ATTACKS BRASS ) the traditional taper taps which Mr leadbeater treasures will in time fail as the brass taper seat is attacked by the new generation fuels containing Ethanol

I Guess in the world of Mr Leadbeater progress is not permitted and still confused how clutch plates effect the performance of petrol taps
 
Frankie17 said:
Mr Leadbeater is obviously living in another dimension

Wassell have been selling the brass taper type taps manufactured in Birmingham for many decades and still do to this day
This new tap has stainless steel ball valve internals with teflon seals like a household gas tap ( AS ETHANOL ATTACKS BRASS ) the traditional taper taps which Mr leadbeater treasures will in time fail as the brass taper seat is attacked by the new generation fuels containing Ethanol

I Guess in the world of Mr Leadbeater progress is not permitted and still confused how clutch plates effect the performance of petrol taps
Click to expand...

Looked the tap up on Scotts website, they indeed employ a stainless ball valve with ethanol proof seals. The action on the lever is noticeably smooth, remains to be seen how long the seals will hold up, but as is, they are a huge improvement over the standard flat lever units sold by most vendors.
 
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