I put her together after the carb had been cleaned and rejetted. Put her on prime for about 4 seconds and switched it back to on. She started up just fine. Ran for about 10 mins fine while I adjusted the idle and then fuel started spilling out from the filters.
I cleaned up the fuel and drain the carbs. I let her sit for a while to dry out. I again primed her for a few seconds and put her back on ON. She started up fine again but now fuel spills out of the carb vent hose. Lots of fuel.
Do I have a stuck float? What could be causing this?
maybe not stuck, but just set too high ? or a sticky needle ?
have you seen the tutorial for checking float height ?
i can't find a link to GOOGLE -on- google anymore, or I'd link you to it ;)
I got the same problem but it only happens on prime, when i turn petcock to ON, the leak into the filter magically went away :dunno_white: yea your floats might be set too high. if you're not sure on how floats work there is a great toilet tank analogy on here somewhere :thumb:
-Lucas
Try this. http://www.bbburma.net/FloatHeight.htm
Quote from: ben2go on April 09, 2008, 07:19:32 PM
Try this. http://www.bbburma.net/FloatHeight.htm
Does the hose connection have to be sealed against the drain nipple? I did this using an air hose from a fish tank.
The level stabilized on both carbs near the gasket but fuel was leaking from the connection of the hose to the nipple. I won't think this would affect it much since the fuel is constantly flowing out.
BTW, the carbs leaked thru the filter when I first installed it and left it on prime for about 10 minutes.
The buddha aka Srinath has suggested that I shake and tap the float with a screw driver.
Others have said I should take a mallet to it. :dunno_white:
Ok where exactly should I hit.
I went ahead and drain the carbs again. Took a lighter and cinged one of the ends of my hose to make a tighter fit with the drain nipple.
Turn her on prime and tested the right carb. The level stabilized under the gasket. good.
Turn petcock back onto "ON" connected the hose to the left side. Turn petcock to Prime and open the drain plug. Fuel stabilzed way above the gasket. Then fuel started to spill out of the vent hose and drip from the left side filter. Put the petcock back to "ON" and fuel stopped overflowing. Clean everything up and drained the carbs again.
Took out the plugs and this is what they look like. The left one is foul with fuel but looks like clean burn from the tip. The right one is cover in soot (carbon foul?) so I'm taking it's running rich.
Here's a pic of the plugs..
(http://i254.photobucket.com/albums/hh115/seamax206/DSCN0875-1.jpg)
Can I adjust the float with the carb on the bike? How would I do this?
Seamax, shake the bike, with it on centerstand, just rock it left right, up down, front back ...
Floats are stuck, not set high. BTW, the fuel getting into motor can cause hydrolock. You may want to take off the spark plugs and crank it the first time.
In shipping the damn things get stuck all the time. Shaking is better than hitting with a mallet.
Cool.
Buddha.
Another possibility would be that the needle valve (on the inlet of the carb that is too rich) is worn enough that it no longer seals. So the float could be in its correct and normal position, but the valve is still allowing fuel flow.
I've not seen this on a GS but I have seen it on SU carbs (similar to our carbs) on cars.
I was having a similar problem and when I pulled the carbs to clean them I noticed that the PO had connected the hoses incorrectly the last time he took the carbs off. I don't remember how they were connected, but basically the "on" position on the petcock was actually running the "prime" so my carbs filled up and overflowed into the airbox and into the cylinder (and eventually into the oil). See if your oil smells like gas. You might need an oil change.
I did the blow test. It sealed up well. Now can it have gone bad in the 3 weeks from my bench to your bike ??? yes, I didn't replace the float needles or the spigot O ring. If they were marginal, they can definetly die ... even on removal. Which is why I test before removal. And remove only if they fail. Yea, the float spigot O rings are a huge pain to find too.
Cool.
Buddha.
Quote from: The Buddha on April 10, 2008, 06:53:08 AM
Seamax, shake the bike, with it on centerstand, just rock it left right, up down, front back ...
Floats are stuck, not set high. BTW, the fuel getting into motor can cause hydrolock. You may want to take off the spark plugs and crank it the first time.
In shipping the damn things get stuck all the time. Shaking is better than hitting with a mallet.
Cool.
Buddha.
I no longer have a center stand due to the under engine exhaust setup. But when I ran the float level check and started her up the second time the side stand was eleveated so that the bike was vertically upright and not leaning to the left.
I will shake the bike and tap the floats this afternoon to see how things go. If this does not fix it how can I check the floats while the carb is on the bike? I've searched and cannot find that thread on how to do this or will I need to remove the carbs..again.
Just to clear up somethings before this happened. the bike started up set to "ON" and seemed fine. It idles at around 1300 and was stable. But after 15 minutes or so I notice fuel leaking from the filter. I later determine it was leaking from the ;eft side carb because the filter on the rights side was still dry.
15 mins - that is a long time. Maybe you are leaking at the spigot O ring ??
Stuck floats will flow like a river in seconds of getting filled up.
Spigot O rings are capable of slow death. Its gotta be taken off the bike to fix ... and the damn O rings are hard to get. Let me see if I find it.
Cool.
Buddha.
Quote from: The Buddha on April 10, 2008, 08:02:00 AM
15 mins - that is a long time. Maybe you are leaking at the spigot O ring ??
Stuck floats will flow like a river in seconds of getting filled up.
Spigot O rings are capable of slow death. Its gotta be taken off the bike to fix ... and the damn O rings are hard to get. Let me see if I find it.
Cool.
Buddha.
Buddha,
Would you mind me sending the carbs back to you for a free checkup. I'll pay shipping both ways and for o-ring replacement if necessary. I will be leaving on business for about a week starting this Friday so I would not have time to fix this anyways and would like to ride her when I get back. Let me know ASAP and I'l have it ship out tommorow Priority.
Or better yet if you have a backup carb with the same setup we can just do a swap and I'll pay for parts and labor and send you this one.
Thanks.
Buddha,
You got PM.
Are you in Texas or NC. Which address do I send it to.
Seamax,
Thanks for this follow-through. I was having the same problem. I too had the carbs apart recently and they did exactly the same thing yours are doing now. I took them apart and found one of the spigot o-rings had turned into some kind of cheese. I'm not sure if this will fix the problem yet but I'll find out :thumb:
Yea O ring cheese ... Mmmmmm ... O ring cheese ... :bs:
Well I thought it was OK ... duh ... that was why I sent it back instead of bitching and moaning that the float O rings were bad ... which they were on these other carbs I was working on at the same time as seamax and his outlet hole was cut just a shade small and the O rings all felt very very tight going in. Me being the gentle as a flower mechanic ... didn't force it ... and searched high and low for a right fit. never found it, and one store I showed it to, that dude just pushed with his thumb and said ... there - its in. Like WTF ...
Anyway, I will post here about these.
I actually dont open stuff that isn't bad unless the sender tells me its doing this and that ... I test it and it was OK, but hey ... 2-3 weeks in a box is possibly enough to eat them.
I guess its also time to make a carb rejetting post and make a sticky for it.
Cool.
Buddha.