Author Topic: Leaking gas from carb  (Read 852 times)

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Offline aminemed

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Leaking gas from carb
« on: December 31, 2017, 02:04:21 PM »
Hi guys

Bought a new petcock 2 months ago for my 750k2 as the previous one was leaking, i forgot to turn the petcock off today for 5 hours and had quite a lot of gas under my bike today. Petcock was leaking and one of my carbs float bowl was leaking as well. I thought that my floating valves should prevent my carbs from leaking, am i wrong ?


Offline Terry in Australia

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Re: Leaking gas from carb
« Reply #1 on: December 31, 2017, 02:36:27 PM »
Yep, it's really important to turn your fuel off. The old style petcocks on the right (points) side of the tank also have a problem in that the rubber seal can be fine, but if the sealing washers under the two mounting screws are stuffed, fuel will leak past the screws, into the bowl, and into your carbs.

It's not hard to overwhelm your float needles, especially if they're the old style all metal ones without the rubber tips, and if your seats have any crap on them, fuel will run by. The big problem you've got now, is did any of the fuel run into your engine? If it did and there was an open valve it will have run into that cylinder, past your piston rings and into your sump.

Pull the oil dipstick and smell the oil. If it smells like gas, or if the "oil level" has risen considerably, you've got a gut full of gas and you need to dump it all out and do an oil and filter change. And make sure you turn your fuel off! Cheers, Terry. ;D
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Offline evinrude7

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Re: Leaking gas from carb
« Reply #2 on: December 31, 2017, 04:27:05 PM »
sometimes those floats get hung up, especially when you are trying to get the carbs revamped and you're tweaking the floats.  remove the bowl from the leaky carb and figure out why it's not shutting off.  is it twisted to the side, are the two sides of the floats splayed out too far?  float needle stuck? spring not functioning?
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Offline eigenvector

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Re: Leaking gas from carb
« Reply #3 on: December 31, 2017, 07:13:45 PM »
Yes you are wrong. ;D

I find that the fuel valves work about 50% of the time.  I'm not certain if ethanol in the fuel has anything to do with that.  Use the petcock.
Rob
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2018 HD Softail Heritage
1979 CB750K Limited Edition
1977 CB550K
1984 CB700SC Nighthawk
1983 VF750S Sabre