OEM Petcock Vacuum Hose

[vic]

I have a '98 Tourer with 15,000 miles that I bought new from a dealer in 2004.  It's also a California bike with the additional smog and vacuum "equipment."  Many times since I've owned it, I'll start on a project that seems simple and end up spending a half day or more removing stuff to get to the original part.  Sure enough, yesterday was true to form.

I had always been under the impression that the petcock vacuum hose goes straight to #6 carb.  So while doing some maintenance on it, I decided to change the #6 carb-to-petcock hose because it looked like it had a small crack near the #6 nipple.  So, I reached under the tank, disconnected the hose at the petcock and the #6 carb, and gently began trying to pull the hose out from one side then another.  The problem is, the hose on the #6 nipple side came out in my hand and didn't budge what I thought was the other end of the hose up near the petcock. 

To make a long story short, I discovered that the petcock vacuum hose, the #6 carb vacuum hose and another hose are connected to each other on the top of the motor by a 3-way splitter!!!   I had to pull the tank off along with the airbox to be able to replace and connect the hoses to that 3-way splitter.  Has anyone else ever found a setup like this or is mine the only one?  Since I bought the bike brand new from a dealer, there isn't a previous owner who may have tinkered with the bike and I've never pulled the airbox to get to the top of the motor till now.  While the airbox was out, I replaced 2 of the crancase breather hoses that looked like they were cut too short from the factory and the clamps on them weren't sitting right....there was some grease around both of them (blow-by?).  A lot of people on this forum have said what a pain in the @ss that airbox can be to put back in and they were right!!!  What I did is slip in the right side tubes inside the frame first and then bent the left side tubes inward, one by one, until I worked the box back inside the frame.  Like others have done, I used a mirror behind the tubes to make sure they were seated one the carb intakes. 

Anyway, thought I'd see if anyone else has seen the petcock vacuum hose hooked to a 3-way like I found. 

[vic]

That's good to know!!! Maybe there's a blessing in disguise by having the petcock vacuum hose hooked to a 3-way splitter......fuel may have a harder time running into the #6 carb than it would be if the vacuum hose is a straight shot from petcock to #6 carb.   Just guessing.  The downside is everytime the vacuuum hose to the #6 carb or the petcock needs changing, the 3-way is sitting on top of the motor.

[sandy]

YUP: CA bikes all have that 3 way. It goes to another smog device. None of the Valk smog devices hurt HP any. The extra device needs a pulse vacuum. The next time you have the tank off, run a vac line from #5 to the smog thingy. Then run a separate vac line from #6 to the petcock. It might reduce frustration in the future.

[vic]

Sandy, thanks for the tip.   I'll definitely do that next time the airbox has to come off for one reason or another.