I'm smelling gas in my garage.

[BF]

Rode to work the other day....rode home.  Temp in the upper 90's...nothing new about that...live in Florida.  Filled tank on way home (no where near the neck, just a normal fillup as usual), rode home and parked in the garage.  Nothing new about that either and have done this hundreds of times and have never smelled gas before. 

Thinking petcock.  Pulled a plug and was dry.  Turned over motor and nothing came out.  Put plugs back in and fired bike.  Runs/idles like normal.

Took truck to work the next day and came home.....still smell gas in garage. 

Turned petcock to off and tried to run bike untill it ran out of gas.  That took longer than usual before she sputtered.......usually when I forget to turn the petcock back on it runs out of gas pretty quickly. 

Do I have petcock problems?  Have read the shoptalk article about cleaning/rebuilding the OEM petcock (and I can do that easy I think), but I haven't read much else about petcock problems. 

If I'm going to take the tank off (have done that before), do I need to consider a Pingle?  I have read some things on here about Pingles and they seem to have problems too. 

I've looked around for a turtorial on how to install the Pingel, but I didn't find anything.  Is there a link or something that can guide me? 

At this point and not knowing anything about the Pingle, I thinking I'd be more comfortable rebuilding and sticking with the OEM petcock rather than making mods with an aftermarket petcock. 

Help me gurus......Is it my petcock and what would you recommend?

[ldrandler]

At the back of your fuel tank is a small rubber hose that run down to the top of the kickstand.  If the fuel in the tank expands it will run our there.  Happened to me just the other day and worried me no end till I figured it out.  I had filled the bike the hight before, parked it in the garage then rode to work the next day.  While nothing happened (that I noticed) while it was parked in the garage; when I cam out from work the next day, I found this small puddle of gas under the kickstand.  The bike had been sitting in the hot sun at 90 degrees all day.  See if you have a deposit that smells like gas either underneath or at the very top of the kickstand where the hose ends.  Good luck and let me know what you figured out.

Duke

[Michvalk]

Could be fumes leaking around the gas cap. There was a recall on the cap but I don't know the details. If you are not finding any actual leaks,(look at petcock and fuel system, along with the vent hose under the bike) stick your nose and see if you can smell fumes near the cap stronger. Mine will smell after filling up sometimes, and I just push the cap down tight again. Most times the smell goes away. Takes longer to run the fuel out of the carbs just running in the garage than going down the road. Check your petcock running down the road and see how long it takes to sputter. Should not take a long time, but, this is not absolute proof of a bad petcock. Some have had to replace the gas cap, and some have just added another gasket to the cap. The search function will be your best friend on the board. Most every system or problem has been discussed here, and some of the people really know Valks. If you can't find the problem, sometimes there are people living close by from the club who can find it, and are more than willing to help. Ask away!!

[MP]

Quick tutorial on installing the pingal. 

Unscrew the Oem and remove.  Install the pingal, and screw it in.  Done.

MP

[RLD]

I've had this happen 3 times, all three times the gas cap was the culprit. I just buy a new one and install. Others have added another gasket. It could be the vent tube, good idea to check it.

[Karen]

Stop farting.

[Robert]

When ever that happened to me it was the petcock leaking and it had no visible signs. Maybe want to take some talc and put it under the valve on the engine to see.