Hello all, I have a question for the experts.

I had my carbs rebuilt last summer. The bike has been running great, but last week I went out to the garage (I ran the bike the day before) and there was fuel all over the floor. The fuel was leaking out of the airbox drain and had also leaked into the cylinders. I also discovered that I had left the choke on (likely unrelated?). After I drained the remaining fuel from the tank and cleared the cylinders, the last bit that came out of the airbox was either very dirty or had oil in it.

So my question is, is this likely a carb issue alone? Shouldn't the petcock kept the fuel from leaking out since there was no vaccum?

I removed the carbs and am going to have a look inside. Whle I'm at it I'll replace the fuel lines since the old ones are pretty dried out and add a fuel filter.

Should I check anything else while it's in peices?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Wow that is a weird one and I will give this a bump to keep it up front. I bet Buddha knows what happened.

Robert

Did you leave it in prime?  That will still flow fuel when the bike is off.  The carb floats should have stopped that, but they can leak slowly if they're constantly under pressure from something like the bike being in prime.  I wouldn't think that that would leak that much that fast though, but I dunno.

I am 99% sure that the petcock was "on" since I have had no reason to be in "prime" for some time now.

then it would almost have to be a bad petcock... the float valves cant be expected to hold against the static pressure of the fuel for a very long time.

tell us, does the bike still run fine? did the leak empty the tank?

how much fuel?  I know that the some "extra" fuel can flow into the airbox through the line that runs from the top end of the engine to the top of the airbox.  then it would settle in the bottom of the airbox and drain out.

The tank didn't empty, but it left a 5-foot wide puddle on the floor. This has happened before, that's why I had the carbs re-built last year. Decided this time I had to learn how to do it myself.

Any ideas how to test the petcock? Is it as simple as trying to blow through it in the on position?

Well, I opened up the carb, and it was so clean in there I think I could have eaten out of it. No dirt, rust, or obstructions of any kind. The needle and seat look brand new (good since they pretty much are!!!).

I put a spare fuel line on the "on" inlet to the petcock in the and could blow through it on all settings, I moved it to the "res" inlet and could blow through it when set to pri or res.

So, is it worth trying to rebuild the petcock or shoud I just cought up the $60 and be done with it???