Quote:
Originally Posted by kz1000st
In New York all gas is between 10 to 15% ethanol. My W650 Kawasaki was with me for 10 years and its diaphragm actually wedged open once from "Glop" accumulation, but didn't fail. I fixed it with some STP Fuel System Cleaner and a good run. My wife's Honda Rebel hasn't given me a lick of trouble in 6 years running ethanol and my six year old Bashan, running 10 to 15% ethanol, is still on the original petcock. What grade of gas are you using and are you running fuel system cleaner? I run 87 octane regular in everything and only put Seafoam in before the winter. I've never studied it but possibly higher octane fuels are running more ethanol to slow down the burn process. Two petcocks going up in smoke says something is at work. Finding its cause might help others to avoid the pitfall.
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The problem I had was that after sitting for a few weeks, the diaphragm inside the vacuum petcocks dissolved, twice. My bike uses a gravity-fed fuel system with an outside the tank petcock. When the bike would sit, fuel would rest on the diaphragm and the diaphragm would melt/dissolve.
I use 91 or better octane pump-gas.
I switched to the manual switch some 1400 miles ago, and have had no further problems.