My FJ1200 saga..so far

[5speed]

So I learned on the fj forum that the petcock coming apart is a big issue on these bikes. Like burn your house to the ground bad. they have a 90 degree elbow on them that when it fails, falls out of the petcock and gas pours all over your hot engine. Someone lost their house because of it.
So I pull the tank to check mine and that is where the "WTF" saga begins..
The first pic is the petcock with the elbow facing the camera. Mine will spin but won't come out. The accepted fix is to "safety wire" it by wrapping wire around it and the body of the petcock to prevent it from falling out.
The second pic is how the fuel line was run by whomever was there before me. To the left in the picture is a huge white sticker showing the proper routing for the fuel line.
They ran it like that because they put the petcock in backwards..
See the smaller hose below the fuel line? It's the vacuum line for the petcock. Ya..it wasn't hooked up.





But wait..there is more. I pulled the plugs to check their condition. This was the first plug I removed..



The other three had a "better" gap..which is kind of irrelevant considering they were champion plugs and the wrong ones for this bike.
How it even started is beyond me.

[Lucien Harpress]

Ain't PO shenanigans fun?

(Reminds me of when the PO of one of my bikes decided to jump the main fuse by clipping in some copper tubing and soldering it in place..)

[5speed]

Ain't PO shenanigans fun?

(Reminds me of when the PO of one of my bikes decided to jump the main fuse by clipping in some copper tubing and soldering it in place..)

Are they ever. It's like stripping away the paint on a classic car you just bought and finding spray foam insulation and road signs as body panels. lol
On the 82 shadow 500 I bought my wife I discovered 1 of the 2 bolts holding one end of the sub frame you remove to pull the engine was held in with silicone because a PO had snapped it off, screwed up drilling it out and just siliconed the head of the bolt back in the hole..

[Gowing]

I safety wired my fj1100 petcock up. I also plugged one of the internal petcock holes with metal putty to turn petcock into on and off function only. No more vacuum function.

[5speed]

I safety wired my fj1100 petcock up. I also plugged one of the internal petcock holes with metal putty to turn petcock into on and off function only. No more vacuum function.

I epoxied and safety wired mine. I can't do that on mine because you can't even see the petcock without removing the seat and side panel. I'm not even sure how the reserve works on mine because there is just one opening in to the tank with a big plastic filter on it. No separate hoses.