petcocking around

[pgnz]

there's no original gasket on a standard tap,  that rubber D-ring thingy seals against the bare tank, probably there's a not-dead-flat fit that didn't seal properly,  hence the added gasket.  Or else the previous owner didn't realize that the boltheads will seep petrol if the boltheads aren't sealed with rubber or fibre washers even if the D-ring is sealing OK.     you need the proper fibre washers sitting under the boltheads to seal the petrol because the petrol flows down the bolt threads and a bare metal on metal seal without a sealing washer won't stop the seeping effect.   If fibre washers are missing, you can grunge-up the bolt threads with silicone as you tighten them or you can snip out your own sealing washers with scissors from petrol-proof rubber, the circular "holey" rubber seal from an old "spare" petcock is ideal for that

[matman]

I am changing the diaphragm and gaskets in the petcocks of a standard, 1979. The petcocks had a lot of gasket goo on them, I assume someone previously had a bit of a leaky, and they tried to just patch it rather than sort it out properly. Anyway, there is a fat rubber (silicon?) gasket between the petcock assembly and the tank. Looks a bit like a rectangle with a capital D at each end facing out.

In between this gasket and the tank, as I took the petcocks off, was a thick cork/cardboard gasket. Maybe a few mm thick. Is this supposed to be there? Or is it likely that the last person stuck in a a hefty paper gasket and a heap of gasket goo to stop a previous leak, when they ought to have just change the rubbery one?


hope this isn't just garbelled nonsense

mat.