Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech fuel leaking

I got my bike out of the shed and noticed oil or something (gas) laying on the back of the engine. I looked around the carbs and didnt see anything looking like it was leaking, though my K+N filters were soaked. I took them off and cleaned them. While the filters were off I started the engine looking for anything leaking. Nothing. I let it sit a couple hours. Nothing. I came down this morning and a puddle of fuel laying on the engine. I'm thinking about removing the carbs and cleaning and rebuilding them. Any thoughts on this? I'm thinking replacing gaskets and such should take care of the leak. Any sources for rebuild kits?

Was the fuel tap on? It could be s sticking float.
Did you start the bike?

The fuel tap was on. I rarely turn it off. I turned it off now to stop the leak. The right carb is leaking fuel as it sits not running. I can see this with the air filters removed. I'm thinking float valve not seating tight. The bike starts and runs great. It just leaves a mess after sitting a while. Like I said, my K+N filter was dripping with fuel.

Turning off the fuel valve just before the ignition key is a good practice always. I have been doing that for 50 years. Once in a while I forget to turn it on when I start it back up.

Yep!

As a general rule, leaving the fuel valve open all the time is just flirting with disaster. That said, the sequence of whether or not the valve is closed before or after turning the ignition switch on/off, is less important than turning the valve OFF when the bike will sit for a period of time.

Let's be glad that our carb bikes have manually operated fuel valves & not those dang vacuum automatic valves (which I despise, based on experience).

I did get this sorted out. I dropped the bowls and checked the float valves and cleaned the seats with carb cleaner. Bowls were clean and everything looked good. Reassembled and still leaked, both sides actually. Now the carbs come off. I bought 2 carb kits and cleaned them spotless. I reassembled with the new parts and hooked a fuel line to them then added gas to see before mounting on bike. Not as bad but still leaking. Bowls come off again and I got some polish on a q-tip and polished those float seats then flushed them with carb cleaner. Try adding gas again and 1 side still leaked after a 3 hour wait. I took that side off again and polished the seat some more and that did the trick. I left the carbs sit with gas to them all night and not a drop. Put them back on the bike and no more leaky carbs. Since the float seats aren't replacable you really got to clean them. I hope this maybe can help others as I've seen from my searching it seems common for these older bikes.

Thanks for filling us in on the fix.