How long should the petcock be on prime before starting??

[cway77]

Just a quick question before I fire up the Kat for the first time this year. Just wondering how long to keep it on Prime before starting. Seems every year I get it fired up but maybe not have it on long enough. Any tips on this would be much appreciated. Should be one while trying to start it?

[Macka]

I think not more than 5 seconds. But I am not sure. I believe 5 seconds max is what my manual says.

[blkpitbull]

Re: How long should the petcock be on prime before starting?

Just a quick question before I fire up the Kat for the first time this year. Just wondering how long to keep it on Prime before starting. Seems every year I get it fired up but maybe not have it on long enough. Any tips on this would be much appreciated. Should be one while trying to start it?

Dont leave it on while trying to start it. Youll foul the plugs for sure. Id let it on prime for about 5-7 secs, put it back on "on" and them feed in some choke. And fire er' up!!!

[The CyberPoet]

Set it to PRIME to fill the carbs if they're empty or partially empty, then back to "ON" for starting.
If the bike has been sitting all winter, 30 to 60 seconds on PRIME.
If the bike has been sitting for a week, 5 - 10 seconds should do.
If the bike ran in the last few days, not at all.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[KatanaO215]

Set it to PRIME to fill the carbs if they're empty or partially empty, then back to "ON" for starting.
If the bike has been sitting all winter, 30 to 60 seconds on PRIME.
If the bike has been sitting for a week, 5 - 10 seconds should do.
If the bike ran in the last few days, not at all.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

Thats your best bet. Although Im not sure I would leave it on for as long as 60 seconds.

[zleviticus]

yeah I hardly ever use prime... Mostly becasue I go and start it once a week or so in the winter months.. My problem is letting the bike warm up before i take off.

[Paladin]

Alright I need to look at the petcock and see whats going on with it. Cause its seems to be reversed from what the fairings say it should be. Here is what I know, I recently pushed the bike a little to see how it would handle and sure enough as I started to run out of gas the bike felt choppy. I turned it to RES and nothing helped and then turned to PRI and it picked back up like normal and I exited and got gas.

Are you suppose to leave the gas set to ON or PRI when your not riding it? I've been setting it to PRI (Actually RES) because the other way is really RES and flooded everything. I took my brother out and let him ride around a bit in a parking lot and he took the bike home and parked it. I told him about turning it off from the ON postion, only he did it the wrong way and it flooded again. So I think my plugs are really fouled for sure, but in reading here it sounds like the only option is to leave it set to ON if you not riding. I normally swith it to ON and give a little choke to start it up and I'm thinking if I have new plugs I might not need to use the choke really, unless its really cold.

Thanks,

[KatanaO215]

you leave it at ON. It wont flood on the ON setting. Prime is for starting after you havent run the engine for a while and RES is for when you run out of gas in the regular tank. The bike should be at ON 99.9 percent of the time

[Paladin]

Ok, aside from what it says on the fairings and seeming backwards to me, I'll leave it set at ON, but as I stated when I was rolling along and it got choppy (starved for fuel) I turned it to the RES and it still did the same, so I went back to ON and the same and then I went to PRI and the bike smoothed out and felt fine. Does this sound like the PETCOCK is screwed or is the fuel lines backwards or what? What I do know is my brother had it on the PRI setting (same setting I used to smooth out the choppy feeling) and I came out the next morning smelling gas like crazy.

Thanks for the help.

[paperairplane]

check your fuel lines and your petcock for crud, sounds to me like it is starving for gas and running it on pri is letting gas get to the carbs, may also have a vacuum leak

I always try to start on ON with choke on. If it is hesitant, I switch to PRI, let it sit a few seconds and crank again - should start then and switch to ON

[Rackovanz]

pri should use the same low tank pickup as RES that way you can fill your carbs after you run out of gas. Make sense to me consisdering that I ran out yesterday and had to put it on pri, fill the carbs, and then to on kicked her and she started right up.

[KatanaO215]

when you open up the gas tank do you her a suction sound?

[The CyberPoet]

Alright I need to look at the petcock and see whats going on with it. Cause its seems to be reversed from what the fairings say it should be. Here is what I know, I recently pushed the bike a little to see how it would handle and sure enough as I started to run out of gas the bike felt choppy. I turned it to RES and nothing helped and then turned to PRI and it picked back up like normal and I exited and got gas.

Sounds to me as if your fuel petcock diaphram (or the vacuum hose from carb #1 to the petcock diaphram) has seen better days. On the Kats (as with most modern bikes), the petcock has a safety system built into it that opens a vacuum-diaphram while the engine is running for the positions of "ON" and "RES". When the engine is off, the vacuum diaphram closes, keeping fuel from flowing. PRIME route fuel around the vacuum diaphram so the engine state doesn't affect it.

Thus, it sounds as if the diaphram isn't opening properly -- meaning either the vacuum to it is bad, or the diaphram itself is, a not-so-rare occurance.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet

[Paladin]

Ok was looking at my Clymer manul to see a few things (talk about vague) and working on the bike this morning. It says for Tank Removal to turn the Fule to Off and the picture shows the arrow pointing left (RES) setting. I disconnected the hoses from the tank and have it pointed towards the RES setting and no fuel is flowing. I'm thinking if I point it down then fuel would start to flow a bit and I bet the other way for PRI I'd have a royal mess.

Tank removal says to disconnect the electrical sensor for the fuel gauge. So I'm trying to figure out what they mean here. Under my tank oposite the PETCOCK looks like someting they are talking about and it has a few hoses and about 4 screws holding it in place. Its some what a goldish color as well. If I remove this am I fixing to get another mess here? It looks like an electrical wire is coming off it and a couple evaporation hoses. Like I said the Clymer manual is good for a few things, but can be a little vague.

I'm also learning you have to remove just about every piece of plastic to get to anything on this bike. What fun all that is and I'm getting better at it for sure. Thanks for all the input and what ever help you can give me on freeing my tank.

[The CyberPoet]

To disconnect the fuel sender, follow the wires coming from the gas tank down -- at one point you will find a plastic plug-connector were it plugs into the wiring loom. Disconnect it there. Do not remove the actual sender unit from the tank.

Cheers
=-= The CyberPoet