Shot this video a while ago but never bothered putting it together til now. Swapped out the vac-operated petcock for a manual Yamaha one. Yamaha 2NV-24500-02
A thick wooden dowel, cut down in length, with a slot in one end that slips over the tap lever, and maybe a piece of old bicycle innertube added to the other end for grip while turning?. Such a thing would be portable enough to keep in your pocket. Appreciate the Bandit has gone now but just posting this in case any others try this mod. Anyway, thanks for sharing Matt; it's something I may do with my own bike 👍🏻
The dowel and hose piece to turn the lever? It'd probably work. I need to ask my buddy if he's been struggling with it at all (new owner). If he is, I'll send him your suggestion. Thanks Zook!
@@matttriestodothings Exactly!. I'm thinking like a piece of broom handle thick dowel of about an inch in diameter, with something like an 1/8" slot that would turn that hard-to-reach lever. The idea is a bit simplistic, but sometimes the most obvious ideas are the last ones we think of!. Best wishes from "across the pond" 👍
See update posted as a reply. Vent your fuel cap!! IT will lay down on you if the flow can not keep up. Dangerous too as it will feel like you threw your chain, or lost your motor and the sudden and very hard deceleration can put you over the bars or hurt your wrists.
I have no experience with the 1200s, and that may be the case that this Yamaha 660 valve may not flow enough--not sure. I think the bigger issue you might have is too much flow resistance through the routing using OEM hose sizing. I know on the 84/85 Honda VF500F's they have an OEM vac-petcock with a fuel pump. For the '86 they changed to straight gravity feed (still vac-petcock) but the delivery system to the carburetors is completely different and have larger hose diameter. "... when working properly..." is the bit I have issues with. Literally every vac-operated petcock I've owned has failed. And this one in the Bandit in particular failed a few years after a rebuild. I just don't trust them, so if it's feasible, I just try to remove them, so I'm not worried about getting stranded. I've had to push my VF home after running it out of fuel before (before deleting the vac-petcock) because I could not get the thing primed even after filling it again with fuel. The only bike I have with a vac-petcock still is my SV650 which it just isn't feasible to remove. When I bought it a few years ago it was leaking, but it's been fine since then. That one's also got a dedicated vac-fuel pump which (knock on wood) has been working without issue. I just have trust issues with the vacuum components.
O rings cracked on my '05 Gsf 1200 Bandit. 2 quarts of fuel in the sump in addition to 4 quarts oil. Question is this, the vacuum diaphragm only opens the gravity fuel flow. How could it pump fuel...?
O rings cracked on my '05 Gsf 1200 Bandit. 2 quarts of fuel in the sump in addition to 4 quarts oil. Question is this, the vacuum diaphragm only opens the gravity fuel flow. How could it pump fuel...?
O rings cracked on my '05 Gsf 1200 Bandit. 2 quarts of fuel in the sump in addition to 4 quarts oil. Question is this, the vacuum diaphragm only opens the gravity fuel flow. How could it pump fuel...?
@@marklang5169 Update. Discovered the problem and it was with the EPA non vented complex fuel cap. It was no longer working as engineered. It is the most complex fuel cap ever! It has veins and check valves and more inside it to prevent venting!! I drilled a tiny hole in it. Problem solved!!
Awesome video, happy you still have the bandit. So do you need to switch the petcock to off when the bike is not in use otherwise you run the risk of adding too much fuel to the carbs whilst it sits / potential float bowl failure. Or do you just let that needle do its job and leave it on. Not having a reserve sounds terrifying though as my 600 has no fuel guage. I'd like to replace my fuel hose but I'm unsure of how to disconnect the side attached to the carbs. Did you need to remove the airbox to gain access or do the carbs need removing to change this line. I'm still hunting down a fuel smell from my bike and after rebuilding the petcock, and replacing the fuel cap seal I think it's either going to be the carbs or that fuel line both of which I want to rebuild / replace in the future.
Yes--it needs to be set to OFF when not in use. The float valves should cover for me if I forget, but realistically I should be closing the petcock every time I stop using the bike. The risk is that if a float is sticking, I could be flooding the cylinder. Worst case scenario is the cylinder fills with fluid, hyrdo-locks, and bends a connecting rod when try to start the bike, and I junk the entire engine and bike in the process :-P . Now, this can also happen with a faulty vac-operated one like I had that was leaking regardless. The floats should keep this from happening though. Not having reserve sounds totally fine to me. It caught me super off guard how damn early the standard fuel fill kicks off on this bike! I was travelling like 80mph and all the sudden the damn thing shut off on me. It took me pulling over on a busy freeway and getting the bike re-fired after turning it to reserve. This was at like ~110mi on the tank. The tank is over 4 gallons, and I know I get more than 40mpg. So I was absolutely not expecting it to kick to reserve that early. I always use my odometer/trip-meter as the fuel gauge anyway (plus it has an electric one). I had left it in reserve 100% of the time after the issue on the freeway. If you're taking the carburetors off, it'll be 10x easier to replace the fuel line at that time. Sometimes you can get lucky and replace a fuel line while on the bike if it's not too stiff and you've got a good hose wrench. If it's the stock fuel line though, you'll have a hell of a time getting it off. It connects to the bottom fuel rail on a plastic piece that connects the carburetors. What stinks about that is that because it's plastic, you can't get super heavy-handed with it. I'd just wait to do the fuel line if/when you pull the carburetors.
I guess it happened for me few times hydro lock, tryed to start and heard loud crank sound and starter just got stuck, placed into gear and pulled and pushed bike couple of times, then tried to start and started without an issues. So for winter just disconnected fuel tank and in spring started without issues, but thinking might be needles fault which comes with floats or is it fuel tap? It happened after 2 weeks bike was stacionary and then few days after. After that i went to my garage 160miles trip for winter and later after 2-3weeks came back started without issues (in that time everything was still connected). Felt that my bandit acts like a woman, sometimes start sometimes you wont start no matter what u do 😂
Have you ever run into the little white filters at the end of your petcock not flowing through properly? My petcock didn't flow properly, but after removing those filters it works like a charm. Sadly there is no place for an inline filter
I have not run into that problem, but I can totally believe it. Yea--the lack of room for an inline filter makes it especially difficult if you're also fighting a fuel tank that is less than spotless. I could make a small inline filter work; however, I'd be worried it wouldn't flow enough and just cause a new set of headaches.
Thanks so much - especially for giving the Yamaha part number. Invaluable. Very helpful for my old Suzuki GT750. Was it a perfect bolt on fit? To be a nuisance: can you tell me the Centre-to Centre spacing between the mounting bolt holes on the new tap. My Suzuki tap is 44mm CTC. Again, thanks very much for posting this- any help will be greatly appreciated.
Sure thing Nick. I was actually able to use the same Yamaha petcock on a Kawasaki EX-500 as well. I was eyeing it up and was thinking... son of a bitch... I bet it would work. Let me see if I still have the old Bandit petcock in my box of "old parts that I'll never use but I won't throw away in case for some strange reason I need to find it... for something."
I think this one may be a little smaller than your Suzuki. This is the Bandit 600 one. It looks like it's just under 35mm center to center. Maybe 34mm. i.imgur.com/1B9XghB.jpg i.imgur.com/n58rTlK.jpg i.imgur.com/0wOxAgO.jpg i.imgur.com/CHGCYmp.jpg
Wow. A new petcock and all. But Matt. I'm putting up the 02' GSF600 that I got last week because the first bike that I got, the '95 cb750 Nighthawk two months ago has gotten so lonely. (Along with the '98 1200 Bandit that I got three weeks ago) I am stopping here until I get at least one of these bikes running. All $600.00 on fbMP. Exact same bike man. Oh my goodness. Same color and everything. And so did it work?
Hey Steven. Yes, the standard petcock I put in works and continues to work. It's a bit tricky to get to it with gloves on, but it works fine. Hopefully you're able to get the bandit and the other bikes sorted soon.
@@matttriestodothings Thank you so much. This bike is the closest to on the road for me. I may stick with it. Theres no speedo/odometer etc and the headlight fitting is broken off, a slight bend in the handlebars and an inspection sticker from 2012. I've got a title but no other info. Broken rear brake and peg bracket that I've already replaced. A fairly light accident then in somebody's garage for the last 10 years. Really really clean otherwise. I'm going to have to weld something on the front. Off to E bay for me. Thanks so much for your reply. I need the support. 👍
I think I used Partzilla. If you're not ordering enough to hit free shipping, yea, it's probably $45 to your door. $34.91 on there now: www.partzilla.com/product/yamaha/2VN-24500-02-00
It affected my sanity in a good way. Now I don't have to worry about a vacuum-operated petcock failing. It doesn't affect the operation of the engine or fuel delivery at all. You just need to make sure you properly cap off the vacuum nipple port on the carburetor the OEM petcock was connected to.
@@YKimo-so7fq Changing to a manual ON/OFF petcock won't cause any lag in fuel delivery. The "ON" will actually work the exact same as "PRIME" on the original vac-operated petcock. I suppose an aftermarket petcock could restrict fuel flow if you bought one that was too small. The Yamaha one I used works fine for the Bandit though.
