Vintage Dirt Bike Q & A

Hey Folks...My first time here and this probably not a new request to everyone "I need some help". Has anyone had to replace a fuel petcock on a (or similar)1974 Honda Elsinore 250? I have one and the preivous owner has "glued" the thing together with JB weld...I know I will have to ruin it to get it apart and removed from the tank. What Iam asking is there a suitable fix out their? It would be great to have it original but if not has anyone found a suitable after market petcock? OR if by chance I and my dremel tool can get it apart is their a rebuild kit? ALSO previous owner left gas tank all rusty but restored paint on outside and Iam going to tape off entire outside of tank and coarse sand blast the inside before I seal the tank with KREEM or NORTHERN tank sealer. Has anyone ever used these products? Any help would greatly welcomed...Thanks ramrod3

I bought a rebuild kit off e-bay for my mt 125. should be the same for the 250. it comes with new sediment bowl o-ring,o-ring between petcock and tank, 4 hole rubber gasket and a couple of fiber washers i did'nt need.

if you can cut a ring around it without damaging either side, hopefully you can unscrew the bowl off. There is a single screw under the strainer that holds the petcock to the tank.i have seen the petcocks on e-bay. just have to do a search. i think all the elsinores use the same one.

i dont know any way to remove the jb weld without damaging the cast petcock. Good luck

Thanks OkieRob.... got it apart yesterday. Will check E-Bay. Thanks again. ramrod3

I purchased one of these for my MT-250 http://www.ebay.com/itm/HONDA-CL70-SL70-XL70-XL75-XR75-MT125-MT250-MR175-PETCOCK-O2-/150838802381?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item231eb177cd&vxp=mtr

It it very similar to the OEM one except you can tell it is made a little more on the cheap side and it is noticeably shorter in length. Functionally it works perfectly, fits perfectly and appears very OEM like. Shipping was more than the part was but it was still cheap and arrived in a reasonable time.

Also, i have never used the products you listed. I have used Red Kote in tractor fuel tanks without any problems. But it really needs to cure before you put gas in the tank afterwards.

I have never used either of those products either. I have heard of and read a lot of bad results with KREEM. I have also used red kote in a Harley tank and it worked for awhile but eventually failed (to be fair the tank was in pretty bad shape and probably should have just been replaced, which I had to do anyway).

On the MT-250, I filled the tank with some snake oil Evaporust and was amazed when it actually worked wonderfully. I think blasting would work much better as long as you can clean it all out really well which may be hard. I then tried the POR-15 motorcycle gas tank sealer kit because I had not tried it yet. So far so good, but it has only been about 6 months so we will see how it hold up long term.

Thanks fellas...Iam on my way to enjoying this little project. Thanks again.