TOPIC:

Z1E has 2 carb T’s in their catalog. Anyone here have experience with either of these? Which is the better one?

What kind of bike/model/carb you are talking about?

77 kz1000. Fuel inlet T’s.

If your fuel T´s are leaking fuel.
I put a short pice of electric wiring shrink tube over the fuel T´s carb inlets to fix the leaking.
Works great, no leaking anymore.

Already past that fix. Time to replace. Just wondering if one is better than the other. One looks like a Kawasaki part.......OEM is always good. But the other has replaceable o rings.

ok, then i would take the T´s with the replaceable o-rings

The billett aluminum is the one with O rings. I've never tried it.

The black plastic one is indeed OEM and I recommend it. I've bought several sets and had no issues. Prior to installing you need to immerse them in gasoline for 24 to 48 hours. They will absorb the gas and swell a bit, making them a very tight fit.

We've seen the OEM T's with the molded-in "O"-rings wrapped with thin teflon tape. That seems to make them last little longer.

The real culprit is ethanol in the fuel attacking the synthetic rubber that is molded around the inner metal tubing. Eventually the rubber shrinks, hardens & leaks, necessitating replacement.

We have six Z1's to maintain. We're moving as needed to the metal T's with the replaceable O-rings simply for cost. We can replace a set of O-rings with locally sourced O-rings at a tiny fraction of the cost of a new pair of OEM T's.

We have four yrs. on two sets and two yrs. on one set of the metal T's with no leaks to date.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

hardrockminer wrote: The billett aluminum is the one with O rings. I've never tried it.

The black plastic one is indeed OEM and I recommend it. I've bought several sets and had no issues. Prior to installing you need to immerse them in gasoline for 24 to 48 hours. They will absorb the gas and swell a bit, making them a very tight fit.

I know it sounds strange that the plastic "T" would swell after being soaked in fuel, but I do believe it. Years ago I brought my bike into my basement over the winter so I could do some work on the forks. I first removed the fuel tank and put in in the garage and drained the carbs so I didn't create a fire hazard. Of course this resulted in the plastic "T" drying out. In the spring when I took the bike outside and replaced the tank the "T" leaked quite a bit when I turned on the fuel. I definitely was not happy, and I searched the internet for a new "T" but couldn't find one. About a day or so later when I turned the petcock on again I saw that the "T" had stopped leaking . That was 12 years ago and it has not leaked a single drop since. Ed

Slmjim mentioned the plastic ones will deteriorate over time due to ethanol. I should have mentioned that I'm able to buy fuel without ethanol and I almost always do.

Rubber deteriorates, particularly with ozone and UV exposure, due to age. I've rebuilt many sets of old carbs and it's always the fuel tee or fuel transfer tube o-rings that are in the worst shape, typically crumbling when you touch them

Nessism wrote: Rubber deteriorates, particularly with ozone and UV exposure, due to age.

The “permanent” solution is to buy the aluminum fittings (I get them on eBay) and replace the “unknown material” o-rings with Viton ones right out of the gate. Useful life will be decades rather than years, regardless of ethanol or non-ethanol fuel use.