three settings on my gas tank, res, on, and pri. "on" is when the thing for changing the position is vertical?

Question

whick one do i ride in, on or pri? what is pri? and why might my reserve not work? ive run out of gas and put it on reserve and nothing happened. could riding with it on pri have anything to do with it?

Answer 1

Old School manual petcocks have REServe, ON, OFF. When you stop riding you switch the petcock to off to stop fuel leaking through the carb.



New School vacuum operated petcocks have REServe, ON, PRIme. When you stop riding the loss of engine vacuum closes the petcock to stop fuel leakage. No "off" position needed. If the bike is parked a long time fuel will leak/evapporate from the carb and you will not be able to start. So the PRI position is for priming the carb if you have been parked for a long time.



Prime sucks from the same level as reserve (otherwise you would not be able to start the bike after parking for weeks after having gone on reserve.)



If you run on Prime you will drain your reserve.

If you run on Reserve you will drain your reserve.

If you drain your reserve you get to push the bike to the gas station.

This will allow you to know the exact capacity of your fuel tank.

Answer 2

PRI is prime, you only use it to start your motorcycle after it has been sitting for a long time(long enough for the crabs to be empty). You are never supost to ride with the fuel selector on prime. It just dumps large amounts of gas into the carbs, yes this is why you ran out of gas so fast, and if your carb seals/gaskets are leaking, you could have been dumping gas into the cylinder. You ride with the selector on (ON). Reserve might no be working because you had it one prime as well because it bypasses all the other valves. If it was not on prime then there could be a pile of dirt around your petcock screen in the tank.I take it your bike is a Suzuki???

Answer 3

The other answers that mention "prime" are correct.



To answer the other part of your question, the reason your "reserve" setting may not have worked is because your lines were dry when you ran out of gas. Sometimes it takes a minute to get things started. You need to put gas back in your carb, but you don't want to flood your engine. Start it up with prime and then switch it to reserve and find a gas station. On normal occasions, use On.

Answer 4

ON = self-explanatory

PRI= Prime

RES= Reserve



You ride in the ON postion. Leave it in "ON". If your motor starts to stumble as you go down the road when you're low on gas you're supposed to switch to RES. Some bikes have a 2 step process to switch to RES. PRI is for starting it when it's sat for longer than a month.

Your reserve may be out of gas or you're not switching correctly. You may need to refill it. But check the manual. If you don't have a manual, get one. It'll also tell you how to figure out if it isn't working correctly so if that's the case you'll need a petcock rebuild.



BTW.. I'm surprised you even got on the bike without becoming familiar with everything and checking everything out.

Answer 5

You should be riding with the petcock at the "on" position. Think of it like this: there are different fuel lines out of your tank. When it's at the "on" position, it draws from the upper part of your tank. When it's at the "res" position, it draws from the lower part of your tank. You should only turn the petcock to "pri" if you're having difficulty starting your bike. After that, you should switch it back to "on" or "res" depending on how much fuel is in your tank.

Answer 6

Pri? What brand is this motorcycle? Petcocks are subject to failure over the years as gasoline breaks down and sediment, water, etc gets in the screen and valve and clogs things up. Reserve is one of the first things to stop working. Why? Reserve is the bottom part of the screen on the actual petcock assembly, where all the gunk settles.



I'm thinking Pri is just simply "off", since you have Res and On covered.



You can try taking out the petcock and cleaning with carb cleaner and blowing it out with an air hose. Inspect the tank for rust and flush that out too. If that does not work you can look for a replacement petcock.

Answer 7

use Pri (to prime the petrol ) when you first start the bike if its being stopped for some time i.e.(i1 or 2 days) the to ON every now and then run down to reserve like that you know it works

Answer 8

Run it in the "ON" position.

When it runs out, switch to "RE" (reserve).

The "PRI" position is for prime position, which is used if the fuel level is run so low that the engine cannot be started.

Answer 9

Gas Petcock

Answer 10

Be careful with the prime position, don't leave bike sitting very long in prime. It could flood carborators out and fill the engine cylinders, causing hydro lock.

Answer 11

My question is.... I have had Hondas for 33 years n when I store them for winter I drain my carbs so it won't get varnished. yea I put stabilizer in the tank but I still drain the carb. hos do u drain carb if there isn't an OFF position???

Answer 12

Happiness is a state that exists only for a moment