Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech carb overflow leaking: How do I fix?

Hi,

My bike is running crappy and my overflow is leaking gas onto the garage floor and probably everywhere else while i'm riding. Anyone know how I can fix it? How do I adjust my carbs?

Tony

Tony,
Sounds like your float might be not closing the needle into the seat. Remove the bowls and check to see if the float will close. Also a float can become defective and stop "floating". Remove it and place it a small container of fuel to make sure it still floats. Lastly the tang that that closes the needle can bent to adjust the fuel level in the bowl. With the carb inverted measure from the top of the float to where the fuel bowl would sit. Should be 17mm.

Thanks, i'll either attempt it myself or send it to the shop that worked on it last (Cons house of Power http://www.houseofpowercycles.com/). Can you tell me what the two allen screws on either side of the float bowl are? One of them seems to be set all the way in (left side) and the other is half way out (right side).

Check out my gallery for a couple of pictures of what I'm talking about.

Also, I recently used a holesaw to knock out the rear baffles. Could that have somehow caused this problem?

Dago,

I cant see any way they you removing some baffles caused this to happen, so dont worry about that. I used to have a Honda (Did I just admit that????) that would do this quite regularly. The fix was easy: Your overflow is leaking right? usually its just some junk or something that gets stuck in the carb. Try doing this:

1) Close your fuel tank petcock to stop the leaking
2- Use a allen wrench to open your carb bowl drain, and drain the bowl. Leave it open.
3- Turn your fuel tank petcock to "on" and let the gas run through your carbs and out the drain that you left open for about 2 or 3 seconds, then turn the petcock off.
4- Now close off the carb drain with your allen wrench so that it wont leak out the drain.
5- Now turn the fuel petcock back on and see if it stops the overflow from leaking. This always worked for me and kept me from having to tear into the carbs. Whatever is making the carb stick usually gets flushed out of the way from doing this little trick. Good Luck.

Backporch865

Dago,

Those screws are your carb bowl drain screws. If gas is leaking out from one of them try tightening that allen screw. Loosening either of them with the fuel petcock on will allow all of the gas to run out of the drain. Maybe just one of them is loose?

Backporch790

Backporch, thanks for your reply. I'll definatley give that a try.

Yes Bronze, those screws are to open the drain on the float bowls. One looks like it's out far enough to allow fuel to run straight through. Make sure it's tight and see if that doesn't fix what ails it...

It's wierd because they are both really tight. It's like the one on the right is the wrong screw or something. Where is the adjustment screw?

Is the fuel is venting overboard after a fill-up, or all the time? I was having problems with fuel on the ground after a fill-up, and it turned out to be fuel from the tank vent. The leak would stop when the fuel level got down just a bit. If it does it all the time, or is for sure coming from the carbs, don't bother with this.

Picture of Right Carb bowl being drained.

The drain screw on left carb is indeed set back within its 'hole'.

The adjustment screw - if you are talking about the air mixture screw - is underneath that rubber cap at the front of the carb pictured.

PS Stay away from HOP at all cost. Trailer your ride to Palm Beach Dealer, Bob if your ride has to see a dealer! Search archives for past rants on HOP fka Con's. Last time I was there it took the parts counter dude about 20 minutes to ring up a can of Plexus.

JJ, good point. I just filled it up that day, maybe it's just splashing around a bit. I hadn't thought of that. I'll keep my eye on it and see if it continues before i do anything drastic. Moe, point taken about House of Power... i've heard nothing but bad things about them. They took me for 3 bills to do a "tune-up" on my bike and I don't think they did a ****** thing.

Hi Tony,
If I can ever lend a hand or two when you are wrenching on your ride, let me know. I live on Merritt Island. The only dealer I think I would take Vera to would be Bob's dealership in Boynton Beach (Palm Beach Triumph). A nice one is on the West coast by Newt too. The last time I was in HOP they did not have any prices posted on any of their vehicles. I asked the 'girl' at that silly table by the front door and she said that you have to talk to a carpetbagger in order to discern the prices. Every time I walk in that place I feel as if I am a homeless person, walking into a fancy restaurant in Georgetown. Perhaps I should grovel at the feet of the almighty owners and kiss some arse like all their cronies do? Not!

PS I always will fill Vera to the point that the fuel touches the smaller circle under the fuel cap. Never noticed fuel on the floor. I have overfilled a softtail though. Lynn says, Jim there is gas under the bike! Oops, darn Hardleys.

Moe, I got some pretty good tools but no experience. If you're willing to lend a hand i'd certainly be thankful! I live in the Pineda/Wickham area.

Just let me know...