Honda Spree and Elite 50 Forums

After thoroughly cleaning carb and checking everything else (it seems), I'm starting to wonder about the petcock. Left standing for a while the 1987 Honda 50NQ fires right up and runs fine at just about any rpm for about a minute and a half - then dies. Will usually start again but not run for any length of time. I can make fuel come out of the petcock by applying suction but it seems like I lose that by the time I reconnect the vacuum tube to the carb.
The tank is from an 85 spree and uses the 19mm petcock bolt connection. Any suggestions?
the Petcock address provided by videonut looks good but it doesn't specify what year petcock. The 19 mm version was used for 84-84 - the 22mm for 86-87.

Pull the fuel line and crank it over, if gas doesn't go everywhere you have a bad petcock or your hoses are bad(if you still have the old braided lines replace em with tygon).

could be that maybe there's an air leak and the manifold isn't pulling enough suction to work the petcock.... are your carb bolts stripped? maybe needs tightening (dont over tighten cause the bolts will tear through the carb easily, finger tight and then like 1/8th turn is what someone told me was good) also try spraying some carb cleaner around and seeing if the engine reacts, that will show you were a leak is.

i had a similar problem and these steps helped me fix it.