Petrol Cock

[Hugo Karasawa]

John,
All went well ?
No problems with the petrol cock ?

[John Clarke]

Hi Hugo
The Fuel and Oil sealant I used on the leaking seal/flange was a great fix. I hate these taps. I was a little worried when I filled the gas tank to full ready for the next days drive and had to park facing up hill and not being able to use the Petcock to shut off. Fortunately the needle valves in the Dellortos held firm. I am very tempted to leave well alone, but I will drain down and repair the Petcock. Thanks for asking, it all has taken a back seat in the job list after hitting a Deer on the return trip in France!
( see post T5B Body Panels )
Kind regards Jay

[Harlan Halsey]

John,
I just rebuilt one of the large diameter fuel cocks using the cork valve gasket and the sediment bowl gasket from Stoddard. I can report the gaskets have the right dimensions. I use the drill press to compress the spring so as to get the circular locking wire in place. I polish the rotator with 600 grit paper and put a very light coat of grease on the rotator face. It is tight but does turn smoothly. Won't know if it leaks, however, for a month or two. But the cork is fine grained and the spring compression is as high as it can be and still allow assembly so I think it will be OK. Hope that this helps.

[Leo Dreisilker]

On my long trip last year my car stuttered and lost power, I flipped it to reserve and it did not work and I turned the pet cock back and forth and got a few miles more until I ran out of gas after 354 miles and 15 miles east of Medicine Hat. Car did not make it to 356 miles( Imagine that). This is a third time my reserve did not work and I wonder what could cause that. I exercise the pet cock infrequently. Any more advice out there?

[Harlan Halsey]

The fuel cock has two tubes coming out of the top which project upwards into the fuel tank. One tube is taller than the other. Switching to "RESERVE" simply switches the fuel feed from the taller tube to the shorter one. Either the long tube is leaking at the base, and allowing all the fuel to be used, or the shorter tube is blocked. On an A car you can just look down into the tank when you run out of gas on "AUF" and see if there is still about an inch of fuel still in the tank. But on a fender fill car, you can't do that. I suppose you could switch back and forth with a full tank and see if it runs in both positions, then run it out on "AUF" switch to "RESERVE", and see if it runs, or run it all the way out on "RESERVE" and put a half gallon in it and see if it runs on "AUF", But at some point, just take it out and replace it or rebuild it.

[Leo Dreisilker]

Harlan, thanks for explaining about the tubes. I will experiment with running in both positions and then run it out in Auf and then reserve and see what happens.

[Jon Schmid]

Leo, your situation is exactly why I flip the tap onto RES on occasion, just to make sure the car will actually still run should I really need to use it. Water, sediment, you name it--I'd rather find out I have a potential problem while I still have 1/2+ tank of gas then discover it when I'm empty. I also run inline fuel filters under the cars (NOT in the engine bays) to help deal with any sediment. So far, so good.