Saturday, January 10, 2009

More Polishing

I had to take a drill to the tank to get the petcock out. I have tried everything possible to extract that stubborn screw in some kind of conventional manner, but in the end, its will was stronger than mine. All it took was a really fat drill bit, my trusty Hitachi cordless drill and a squirt of olive oil and I was good to go! In this case, might is right.

I took the petcock apart and most everything looked pretty good, with the exception of the cup o-ring that has been smashed beyond recognition (almost). There was a lot of old heavy gasoline residue stuck in the cup and in the main chamber. A good soaking in my special toxic concoction and a good scrubbing with a variety of wire brushes took most of the gunk off. After a good cleaning and polishing with Never-Dull, the exterior came out looking mighty fine.
After I finished the restoration, I realized that I won't be needing it for my bike, since I will be buying a different fuel tank, which will use a different petcock. Although these are still available for about $90 new, I think I can sell this for a few bucks on Fleabay.

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