Motorcycle Repair: 1981 Honda cb900c, crank case, petcock

Question
I have a 1981 Honda CB900c, on a recent ride it quit on me, there was fuel at the tank petcock, but no fuel in the clear inline filter, so I pulled the fuel line off of the automatic petcock and went directly to the carbs. It started right up. Can I permanently bypass the automatic petcock and remove it?  What do I do with the vacuum port?  Thanks

Answer
Corby, it is possible to bypass the petcock but not with stock parts.  You can take the guts out of the petcock and plug all the external holes and it will work.  You'll give up the ability to shut the fuel off, and if the bike sits for a while (like over night or the winter), the carbs will leak fuel into the engine, wash the oil off the cylinders and dilute the crank case oil with gas.  I guess, I wouldn't recommend it.  Those parts should still be available from Honda or off the web somewhere.

Regards
Rich