MTFCA Forum

I have made a few different types of shutoff handles for my gas tank and this weekend and settled on the ones using a 1/4" drive universal joint as a beginning point. They work well and don't cost much and are easy to fabricate. It looks like they will work well within 30 degrees of straight on. I mounted one on my roadster by attaching a short bracket to the running board brace which hides it beneath the running board. It is easy to locate by looking at the tops of the running board bolt heads. I oriented it so the bend of the handle pointed toward the back when "on" and down when "off".

That’s a good idea using a 1/4” ujoint. The 1/4” ujoint that comes in the cheap-o socket sets superisingly are pretty good. Not like an American made u- joint but for small nuts and etc they work pretty good. Don’t know what these shown are but that’s a great idea.

When I made the first one of these I went to "Horror Freight" and bought the three universal set (1/4, 3/8, 1/2) for ten dollars but I wanted to make a number of them and had no idea what I would do with all of the left overs so I found a place in California where I could buy just the 1/4" ones for about seven dollars. When they arrived I found that they could be disassembled prior to welding so the springs and screw tempers weren't compromised I found the 1/2" steel tube from Mcmaster-Carr. With extensions I made previously the valve would weep gasoline if there was any side load and this eliminated that problem. At the same time I was able to rotate the extension in all four directions to find a place to easily attach it to existing hardware.

That makes it handy doesn't it? And the idea has some precedent. Buick Model Fs used handles to reach the petcocks under the cylinders. Those petcocks let excess oil out of the cylinders and also can be used to relieve the compression when starting. Nice work.
Rich