Petcock Open = Drained Gas Tank

HJ,
Have you looked at the needle seats with a magnifying glass? May be instructive, one of mine was sharp and did not leak at all, the other, it looked like someone had taken a drill to it and made a bevel on it. It's my opinion that you can have either a sharp seat that has no nicks in it (probably as original) and it works fine, or in my case another one that has a taper and then you have to get the needle to contact the taper as good as possible, which is why I used the tapered aluminum rod to mimic the shape of the needle and get the best contact with the needle and seat as possible. I'm not sure what taper a bamboo skewer would have on it to relate to the needle. Just my opinion, take it for my 2 cents.

Dave
69S

Hi- a few years ago I had a similar incident, though it took more than two days to drain- after about two weeks I went to start the bike, and as it fired up suddenly raw fuel began to spurt out the oil tank breather. I was on a (badly) running bike in the middle of a small lake of gasoline on the garage floor with fuel pouring out, soaking my pants leg as well. You never saw a guy shut down a bike and run away from it so fast. Not sure exactly what happened, but man it was unnerving. My mechanic said it happened because the petcocks were left open and the fuel drained into the sump, so I guess it can happen! Drained everything, changed fluids, changed pants, everything worked. Good luck- eric

After pushing the seat back in with loctite, it still leaked although slower than before. Taking a look with a magnifying glass as Dave described, there was a noticeable imperfection on the seat.

Another 90 seconds or so with the bamboo skewer and polishing compound and the imperfection was more or less gone (the skewer is pretty soft, so mushroomed pretty quick). On further testing, float worked like a charm.

Had a problem on reassembly with the bike in that the idle ran away rather quickly. Discovered I had failed to reconnect the balance line, creating a huge air leak. Once corrected, restarted the bike and it settled into its normal steady idle.

All is well I hope! Off for a nice ride tomorrow.

Cheers,

- HJ

I'm glad you got your needle/seats sorted. I have discovered over the years that these bikes are not that bad. Things wear out, other owners do stupid things to them and once in a while you just have to take things back to make them work as they should.

Seems like a lot of times people complain about issues that all that needs to be done is fix it. I've heard many horrible stories of Norton issues, but personally have not experienced them. I think they are pretty good machines if you just take care of them and don't add too many after market items.

My 2 cents again, rant over.

Dave
69S

Thanks for the helpful advice by the way!

I agree with you, but sometimes it feels like a never ending list of things that need fiddling with... Everytime I go out for a long ride I think of something I could try and improve. Unfortunately most of the time my "improvement" ends up screwing something else up more! But my Norton is certainly making me a better (and more patient) mechanic.

The floats are a good example. I guess I could have just left it alone and figured I'd always shut the petcock in the future... but then I'd be thinking about how I needed to fix it every time I went out on the bike. And inevitably I'd leave the petcock open at some point in the future again...

Cheers,

- HJ

Hungry J0e said:

Thanks for the helpful advice by the way!

I agree with you, but sometimes it feels like a never ending list of things that need fiddling with... Everytime I go out for a long ride I think of something I could try and improve. Unfortunately most of the time my "improvement" ends up screwing something else up more! But my Norton is certainly making me a better (and more patient) mechanic.

The floats are a good example. I guess I could have just left it alone and figured I'd always shut the petcock in the future... but then I'd be thinking about how I needed to fix it every time I went out on the bike. And inevitably I'd leave the petcock open at some point in the future again...

Cheers,

- HJ

Click to expand...

I would think that shutting off the petcocks would be a common as turning off the ignition. It it because people are too use to modern bikes and forget the "finer points" of vintage ownership?

Yep, you'd think people would learn that habit of turning them off. I sure did after that incident- I now turn the petcocks off after I turn off the ignition, before I even get off the bike. Experience is a great teacher of good habits.

swooshdave said:

I would think that shutting off the petcocks would be a common as turning off the ignition. It it because people are too use to modern bikes and forget the "finer points" of vintage ownership?

Click to expand...

Probably... my other bikes are fuel injected, so it's never been a regular habit for me...

Cheers,

- HJ