Hi all.

I wonder whether anyone could help me with this one. I am totally not mechanically minded so this would have to be shown to my mechanic so be nice please, lol!

Well, I have had this bike since 2003 and it never gave me any trouble at all up until last year. I keep getting a recurring problem with my petrol tank draining its contents into the engine. It has done this a number of times and each time it leaks yet again. I have just had the petcock replaced as we thought that it was causing this drain. Just a week later and we are back with a drained petrol tank. I am at my wits' end, I'm contemplating giving up riding as I cannot afford another bike just now. If anyone out there has had this experience could you kindly let me know so that I could point it out to my mechanic who by the way is a specialist Honda mechanic here in Malta. If he cannot get to the bottom of this I really do not know who can. A few years ago my previous mechanic changed the carb gaskets and seals.

Thanks a lot for any ideas you might have.

Cheers from a hot and sunny Malta

 

First of all, if he's a specialist Honda mechanic, he should be able to figure it out. With that being said, did you replace the petcock with a OEM vacuum operated F2 specific petcock? If you did then a brand new OEM petcock should not let fuel out of the tank unless the engine is running. If you maybe replaced it with a F3 gravity feed petcock then it only allows flow when the float needles in the carb allow it, when carb bowls says it needs it, And if using the F3 petcock, its recommended to turn the petcock to off when not riding the bike. So the answer is, its the petcock and/or the floats not stopping the flow. But if the bike runs good pretty much all the time, I wouldnt think it would be the floats. On a side note, all that gasoline draining into your engine is bad, if it fills up a cylinder it could hydrolock, trying to compress liquid instead of air, and if it drains past your pistons, its now in the crankcase overfilling/diluting the oil, BAD no matter how you look at it. Check and change your oil, or its gonna cause major havic.

 

I would try turning the petcock to the off position (horizontal), every time the bike is not running, every time. See if that helps. And just in case you dont know, petcock horizontal position is OFF, vertical is ON, the other vertical is RESERVE.

 

Thanks for the info. According to my mechanic the new petcock will only allow petrol through if the engine is running and there is no need to even shut it off. I normally always shut off my tank. Truth is this will be the 4th time that I am having to change my oil and oil filter with no progress in sight. I am probably going to count my losses, stop riding for a year or so and wait till my wife buys me my dream bike (VFR800) next year when I turn 50. I am fed up of having a bike that has turned from being so trustworthy to becoming so unreliable.

 

I understand your frustration. I also understand not being mechanically inclined, which sucks because sometimes problems such as yours could be a very easy & cheap fix if you didnt have to pay a mechanic. I would say most of us here on this forum do our own work either because we dont trust the so called experts at the dealerships or refuse to pay the $100 per hour labor fee. Any how, do yourself a favor, get down and look at your petcock, if its a F2 petcock there should be a fuel line about the size of a pinky finger going to the middle of the carb area AND a small rubber line running to the engine block itself into a vacuum port on cylinder #1, the one on the left beside your left knee. If you dont see that little rubber line, its not a F2 petcock. But you said you turn off your petcock off when not riding. So the fuel should not be flowing.

 

Thanks again. I will try to determine if it is the correct petcock first of all and possibly post a picture of it. I am a night shift worker so apologies if it takes me a while to get things done. Will certainly keep you posted though and thanks yet again for your pointers.

 

Your fuel tank should not be draining unless the petcock is broke or wrong petcock and/or turned off. Yes, post some pics. AND get some sleep, I use to rotate shifts every week. Now I just got a new job, that is steady night shift 10:30pm to 6:30am.