gas tank lever position [Archive]

pattorp

05-01-2009, 06:42 PM

Hi, Im brand new to this board. I have a 1999 Suzuki GZ250 which I bought recently. I am confused about the position of the gas reserve lever. Can anyone clarify for me what is open and what is closed. Its sort of wierd that its so confusing, but it is...

Thanks for your help.

Pat

patrick_777

05-01-2009, 07:09 PM

This should answer your questions. There are a few good pictures of the petcock in the correct position hanging around the board. You'll have to do some searching.

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2341&hilit=petcock (http://www.gz250bike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2341&hilit=petcock)

The thing to remember is the long end points TOWARD what you want.

primal

05-01-2009, 09:36 PM

It's pretty easy once you think about it. You probably want to think that the beveled end points to the desired position (like an arrow). It's actually the other way around. How can you tell? Because no matter which position you turn it, you'll never get the beveled edge to point towards the prime position (or whatever the 6 o'clock position it, I can't remember).

mrlmd1

05-01-2009, 09:53 PM

There is an arrow imprinted on the lever pointing to the direction you want it to go. Look at it. Run points towards the front of the bike.

dannylightning

05-01-2009, 10:22 PM

There is an arrow imprinted on the lever pointing to the direction you want it to go. Look at it. Run points towards the front of the bike.

Edit (some one said this was confusing so i will word it a bit different)

i can not see the arrow on my petcock so i had to look this up my self, i read on another site that almost all bike use the short end of the petcock, than i found this site with the correct information. on the gz you use the long end of the petcock to point to the position you want.

only use prime if the bike has not been started for a while and as soon as you start the bike turn it back to the run position....

primal

05-01-2009, 11:00 PM

always keep mine on reserve so the gas in the reserve tank does not get stale..

You really don't know that there isn't a "reserve tank," do you? The main tank and the reserve tank ARE THE SAME TANK. The only difference is that the pipe for the normal position is higher than the reserve position. When you switch to reserve you're just getting the last bit of fuel from the bottom of the tank.

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2008/01/images/petcock.jpg

There is no good reason to run on reserve all the time, but there are plenty of bad ones (you know, like ACTUALLY running out of fuel -- the reserve is there for a reason, you know).

dannylightning

05-01-2009, 11:36 PM

when i first got this bike i remember looking up petcock (gas lever) cus i was trying to find out what the prime setting was, had never seen that before and i found something about the reserve tank. it stated that it was it's own thank but was in the main gas tank and only held enough gas to get you a few miles to the gas station and next time you filled up it would just suck in gas and refill its self.. i thought i read it on this site but it may not have been. thanks for the info ill take it off reserve

when i see i have gone 100 miles i start looking for a gas station. so i probably wont run out of gas but you never know. with my car i do the same thing except at 150 miles i start looking for a gas station.

primal

05-01-2009, 11:40 PM

There's still the fact that there's no point in keeping it on reserve. You're getting absolutely no benefit.

If I recall, the reserve on the GZ is about 0.9 gallons. That's an extra 60 miles that could save your ass.

music man

05-02-2009, 12:00 AM

I actually ran out of gas for the first time on my bike about a month or so ago, because my tube has fallen off inside the tank and I ran all the gas out, what a surprise :shocked: when i switched to reserve and got nada, luckily I was only about 2 short blocks from a gas station :rawk: .

Easy Rider

05-02-2009, 11:54 AM

i can not see the arrow on my bike.. i read that almost all bike use the short end of the petcock and not the long end. than i found this sit and every one says on this bike you want the short side pointing to either your normal gas setting or the reserve setting. i always keep mine on reserve so the gas in the reserve tank does not get stale..

Could that be any more confusing ??

Like others have said, on this bike the LONG end of the lever points to the active position and, yes, that is the opposite of a lot of other bikes.
BUT
There is only ONE tank, with different taps above the petcock, so it is all the same gas.
It is a good idea to run for a few miles on RES every once in a while to get any water that has settled in the bottom of the tank but not all the time.
If you run on RES all the time, you will eventually be sorry when you run out and have to walk.

AND, lastly, there is no OFF position; the vacume control automatically turns the gas off in ON or RES positions.

Sarris

05-02-2009, 12:27 PM

We all know it appears ass backwards, but move on.

Also, Easy is right about the vacuum hose. Your GZ will not run with it disconnected as vacuum engine opens the valve. It also will run like shit if it has any vacuum leak in this hose.

:retard: :whistle: :neener:

primal

05-02-2009, 01:07 PM

For what its worth, the petcock on my Kawasaki operates just like the GZ250.

To tell you how stupid the previous owner was, he told me that the 3 o'clock position on the petcock was the off position. Wanna guess what it really was? Yup, the PRIME position.

Awesome.

dannylightning

05-02-2009, 04:56 PM

EDIT.. got confused with all this direction talk and posted something stupid... info deleted..

alantf

05-02-2009, 06:24 PM

the correct position on this bike is to have the short end of the petcock facing the run position. if you look at the owners manual it also shows you this..

NO IT DOESN'T!

If you look ,carefully, at the drawing in section 2-12, you'll see that it describes the action of the petcock in "prime". It shows the long side pointing down to prime. There is also a little arrow on the long side, to show that that is the correct side to point to whatever you pick.

mrlmd1

05-02-2009, 06:26 PM

There is a misprint in which post? About the correct position of the lever on the petcock? WRONG!!!
For the last time, for you or anyone else who asks --- The LONG end of the lever points to the direction of what you want, if you want in on the RUN position, it points FORWARD, if you want it on RESERVE it points to the REAR , NO MISPRINT.
Look for yourself on page 7 in the owner's manual posted on here, can't be any plainer than that. But you can keep it in whatever position you want, it's your bike.

GZ250

05-02-2009, 09:03 PM

there is no closed position. anything else is possible.

http://www.postimage.org/gxinv7r.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gxinv7r)

dannylightning

05-02-2009, 11:55 PM

primal

05-03-2009, 12:26 AM

dannylightning

05-03-2009, 12:36 AM

im not feeling well and kind of out of it, somehow i got confused i am sorry.. i am gonna edit out that post so one one else gets confused...

mrlmd 1 and alantf are absolutely correct. the picture gz250 put up is what you wan to go bye i don't know what i was thinking

That's alright. I get that way when I'm on Nyquil. Mmmmmm....

i have been sleeping so much today and yesterday its not funny. I got up did what i had to do and back to bed.. got up a few times here and there but not for all that long, no nyquill needed this time. i love that stuff, when i just cant get to sleep it always does the trick..

alantf

05-03-2009, 06:00 AM

I once bought some herbal sleeping tablets called " nightol". On the packet it said "warning, may cause drowsiness" (perfectly true!)

dannylightning

05-03-2009, 11:36 AM

well there are so many idiots in the world they got to cover their ass i suppose

that was a reply to this by the way forgot to quote it...

I once bought some herbal sleeping tablets called " nightol". On the packet it said "warning, may cause drowsiness" (perfectly true!)

Water Warrior 2

05-03-2009, 10:24 PM

For anyone still confused. Try to get the short side of the petcock lever to point to prime. Can't be done unless something is broken.

adrianinflorida

05-05-2009, 12:58 PM

Water Warrior 2

05-05-2009, 03:40 PM

For anyone still confused. Try to get the short side of the petcock lever to point to prime. Can't be done unless something is broken.
There's nothing that truly "Can't" be done, not when a really stubborn jackass get's his hand on some Vise-Grips.

;)

Sounds like you have tried and learned certain things the hard way. lol. Glad to know I am not the only jackass to self educate.

adrianinflorida

05-05-2009, 04:21 PM

[quote="Water Warrior":2tfbxctv]For anyone still confused. Try to get the short side of the petcock lever to point to prime. Can't be done unless something is broken.
There's nothing that truly "Can't" be done, not when a really stubborn jackass get's his hand on some Vise-Grips.

;)

Sounds like you have tried and learned certain things the hard way. lol. Glad to know I am not the only jackass to self educate.[/quote:2tfbxctv]
This...has....just...got....to....turn....this.... way......SNAP!!!!....shit