Posted by Jim on May 18, 2000 at 18:07:53:
In Reply to: I read your post posted by Linnette on May 18, 2000 at 13:29:12:
No it won't leak. Here goes petcock 101 for ya:
There are 3 positions: regular, reserve, and prime. With the petcock in either of the first 2, nothing will leak out, because fuel has to be "pulled" out by the carb. Your carb has some gas in it all the time, and there is a little float in it. When the level goes down, the float does, and the carb pulls gas out of the tank (a continuous process when on- like a toilet tank with a leaky base gasket that keep running). In "prime" the tank flows straight to the carb. This is there so that if the carb is drained (like if it is pulled off or replaced), the little resevoir has a chance to fill up. Never leave this on because your carb won't work right, and as Bob has said, then gas WILL leak out.
Now, in regular and reserve positions, the gas comes from the tank on demand, but inside your tank there are two holes that gas flows out of. The tank holds 2.8 gallons. The first hole is higher than the second. When you are in the normal (straight down- I forget what it actually says... maybe "run") position, gas is flowing out the top hole. As the level goes down (when you use the first 2.3 gallons), it gets lower than that hole, and the bike starts to "run out" of gas. When you switch the petcock to reserve, all you are doing is switching to the lower (in the botom of the tank) hole. You then have about .5 gallons left to find a gas station. If you ride around on reserve, when you run out of gas, it will be becasue the tank is bone dry.
Some bikes don't work that way. The petcock may actually have a seperate area that it draws from for reserve. In this case, it is possible to run out of gas on reserve, and switch back to "run" and still have a little gas left. But NOT on our Savage.
Bottom line is ride on "run" and when she starts to run out of gas, you've got half a gallon to get to a gas station. I'm getting 40 something miles to the gallon, so when I hit reserve, I'm looking for a gas station in the next 20 or so miles.
-KTRSD
-Jim