TOPIC:

My petcock is leaking. After a bit of a search here I see that I'm in good company. My first stop was Z1 Enterprises, but they don't show a rebuild kit or a replacement petcock for my bike. I'm going to try disassembly and cleaning, but I'm not too optimistic. I found this discussion kzrider.com/component/option,com_joomlab...id,3/id,23976/#23976 involving a Suzuki vacuum petcock. Is this my best option? Mine is currently manual. Would there be any problems converting to a vacuum type?

Only problem I can see is where the vacuum line connects to the #2 carb. I don't recall if the port is there, plugged or just capped?

The port is there with a cap on it.

My 1977s have no vacuum port on the #2 carb, but you can run a vacuum line to any of the 4 carburetor sync caps on the intake boots if you have too. This looks good, but what is the advantage of the suzuki petcock vs a Kawasaki? Suzuki less money or more reliable?

RonKZ650 wrote:

My 1977s have no vacuum port on the #2 carb, but you can run a vacuum line to any of the 4 carburetor sync caps on the intake boots if you have too. This looks good, but what is the advantage of the suzuki petcock vs a Kawasaki? Suzuki less money or more reliable?

Simple.
The Kaw KZ650 petcock (and all 5 of the sub #s for it) is no longer available, and there's not a dealer in the U.S. that shows one in stock on the Kawi parts locator web system - trust me, I checked.
The Suzi petcock is still available, and IIRC is cheaper than what the last price on the OEM petcock was.

FWIW a Kawi Cop bike petcock will also work, which is what I'm running now on my 650.
It was the only (still available) vacuum petcock I could find to fit my bike at the time, and the local dealer just happened to have one in stock.

RonKZ650 wrote:

My 1977s have no vacuum port on the #2 carb, but you can run a vacuum line to any of the 4 carburetor sync caps on the intake boots if you have too. This looks good, but what is the advantage of the suzuki petcock vs a Kawasaki? Suzuki less money or more reliable?

My mistake. I thought one of the sync ports was used for the petcock. Mine doesn't have a separate vacuum port either.

Easy.
Suzuki petcock -> available
Kawasaki petcock -> not available, unless I'm mistaken, which is what I was trying to determine with my original question.

All the vacuum petcocks have been discontinued by Kawasaki? That's a dang good reason to go the Suzuki routt. But, for info Kawasaki made a lot of vacuum petcocks that had the same spacing, such as KZ750, 79-up KZ1000, even GPZ750 up well into the 80s. Some of these must be available. They may have slight variations from the KZ650 such as vacuum port sticking out 90 degree different which can be easily changed, fuel outlet slightly larger diameter, fuel pickup tubes a little different so reserve tank capacity will vary ect. Any of these will work and there must be availabilty on some of them I would hope, but who knows.