Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Performance Mods Pingel petcocks

I would like to know if anyone has any experience with the Pingel petcocks that Brent sells. I'm wondering about reliability and ease of installation. My bike's been acting like it's running out of gas at 100 miles intermittently, and I'm trying to narrow it down. It's runs again when I switch to reserve. It's not the breather hose, I've checked.

Any info is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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My bike's been acting like it's running out of gas at 100 miles intermittently, and I'm trying to narrow it down. It's runs again when I switch to reserve.

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uh, that means you are running out of gas at 100 miles, just like I do. I switch to reserve around 100 miles.

But, the Pingle is an excellent piece of equipment, it is not a hard job to install as long as you make your own gasket and use other sealent other than the ones provided, they are useless. Lots of us use them and love them, high quality chrome with very good parts and great usability.

154 miles when I hit reserve the other day. You be suckin some fuel Dinqua. Our difference is limited to just about needles and jets. I am still stock with one shim and 160 mains. Something isn't right. Beavis will tell ya I ride pretty hard and am on that throttle.

yea but when I go on reserve I still have about 7/8 of a gallon left. The pingle seems to have a much larger reserve, due to the height of the tube openings. I still get about 40mpg though.

You guys must be into the throttle pretty good. I just sort of putt around. Wifey & I took a little ride last week one day 130 miles & got 60 mpg. That's up from the 54 I used to get with the 17 tooth sprocket. I have the 18 tooth on now.

Thanks for the reply, Dink. Got some gas, and it took 3.6 gals., which came up to 27 mpg. That sucks! I use to get 40 mpg average. Looks like I'm gonna need some tune-up.
I think I gotta stop blippin the throttle to show off my loud pipes!

....and the Pingel just looks great and feels great. Most seem to think that the performance improves, less sure of this myself... but it really looks and feels great. There are tons of threads on how to get them to not leak, but I agree that a thicker gasket seems needed to take up for the somewhat curved tank. If it takes you 2 or 3 (or 7) tries than you get to join the club.

Use this....

Seal-All

With a good gasket you will have to make yourself...

Thanks for the info, Jim, but I'd rather do it right the first time. Can't be messing around with something that involves fuel, for surely Murphy's Law will rear it's ugly head.

I keep remembering Fred Rau's first article in the July Ride Metric Road Bike magazine, where he says "there's no do-it-yourself job small enough that you can't turn into a major catastrophe."

Good luck with the install, I'm sure you'll like the Pingel.

It surprises me that Brent hasn't seen all of the threads about the bad gasket and changed them out for a better one. All of the products he seems to sell are high quality, to go cheap with this one seams out of character. Is there a reason that a better one isn't included?

sebastian

Robert2k,
Check your float levels, they will cause a severe loss of mileage if they're off. The service manual describes the procedure pretty good. Not hard to do at all and it can be done with everything left on the bike too.
Also check your plug color, with that kind of mileage I would expect them to be pretty black and wet, maybe have to drop your mains down a few sizes as well. And sync the carbs when you're all done. Just ride over here in September and we'll get you all set.

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It surprises me that Brent hasn't seen all of the threads about the bad gasket and changed them out for a better one.

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Good point! It seems that 100% of the people that use them have to mod them with new gaskets and sealent. So why not just send a good gasket and little tube of sealent to start?
Come on brent, you slackin or what? (notice how I bust your nads AFTER I got my parts from you?)

Before we beat up Brent, are we all sure that the crappy gaskets/sealer are still being shipped? I was under the impression that this issue was reworked and solved.

I would like to hear from someone who has recently installed one. Oxford, maybe?

Haven't got mine on yet but it looks like a skinny little green thing...is this the 'bad' guy?

Don’t get me wrong, love the product coming out of newspeedmaster.com, this is why I said it seemed a little out of character. Can't say enough good things about Brent's stuff.

Sebastian

Sigh..., that be the POS

Take Grump's advice for the installation...

Not busting on ya, cbass and I agree that it is definitely out of character.

I put a pingel on my BA. I must have lucked out. I used the supplied gasket and sealant. no problems. I did wait a long time for the sealant to evaporate because my watch had stopped. I think the instructions said ten minutes. I must have waited about twenty. I think that is why it didm't leak.

I have installed five (5) pingel petcocks...1 TBA, 3 SM's and a T 100. All with the pingel supplied gaskets and blue sealer...no problems with leaks at all...Lucky..I guess..!

Your stock petcock sounds like its leaking. turn the petcock off, detach the fuel line from the carb side and let the line hang down into a coffee can. If fuel starts filling up the coffee can its time to install the Pingel.

Ditto about Brents stuff. Very glad he is there supporting our bikes.
Bought my Pingel from Brent about 2 months ago and it too maybe 5 tries. I'm guessing that some of our tanks are shaped slightly different and noticed that the ark of the tank was greater on the inboard side and that the adapter for the Pingel made very little contact. Tried many different approaches but what finally worked was doubling the gasket thickness and being sure that the matterial was gas compatable. So, my recommendation would be to look at the matting surface of the adapter and consider using a thicker gasket. But, as has been said over and over here, you'll be in good company if yours leaks and eventually you will be very gratified with getting it not to leak. Beers on hand can help. And for those of you who got it to not leak the first time... take it off and try it again.

I read all the threads, and bought the Seal-All and gasket paper before I started. The supplied gasket looked to be good enough, so I used it with the Seal-All, and the gasket split as I tightened down the screws.

Finally undid the mess, and cleaned all up with acetone (carefully). Cut a new gasket from the paper, and used the supplied Hylomar this time. (I did not like the thin, runny consistency of the Seal-All.) The Hylomar is a much thicker consistency, and was much cleaner to work with.

Have not reinstalled the tank, yet, so I can't attest to it's "seaworthiness" just yet. (I'm still nursing a broken left knee suffered June 24th)

Definitely use a better gasket than that supplied.

By the way - has anyone yet posted pictures of the stock and Pingle petcocks? (Brent - that in itself would sell you a bunch of product.) There is no comparison.

Keith, sorry to hear about the knee.

My gasket also split when I began to tighten the bolts - and I had already applied the Hylomar. It was like rubber cement, some of it stuck and some of it just balled up into a blue gooey mess. Maybe it was old... I used some Garlock gasket paper to make a new gasket and coated all surfaces with a light coating of Seal-All. The gasket paper was sturdy, but it wasn't real thick or real thin, maybe about the thickness of a matchbook cover. Bolted it on, let it set overnight, and it hasn't leaked a drop since, and I'm thinking that's been over a year.....

And, this isn't directed at you, but blaming brent for Pingels problems isn't right. He just sells them - he doesn't make them.....

As was mentioned here, and discussed on the old boards, someone said Pingel had replaced the soft, splitting gasket with a better one. Maybe that still isn't the case. I would suggest if someone has a problem with the gasket splitting, contact Pingel....

and this isn't a good pic, but here's a Pingel... this also illustrates using the AI hose to connect your vacuum ports to smooth out your idle....



Happy motoring...