Carbs

[Nightflier240]

Hi everyone, I need help, I sold my 79XS1100SF to my brother-in-law ten years ago, three months ago my sister sent me an e-mail telling me that the next time I was in town to stop and get this thing out of her yard, it had been sitting for four to five years in the yard under a make shift tarp. So me and a buddy the next weekend drove the 500 mile to and 500 miles back to get MY bike BACK.

Got it home, WHAT A MESS. It has been 2 1/2 months now and I have most of it fixed or the parts are on the way, new used forks that are supposed to be straight.

Problem is that I am not able to get the carbs to stop pouring gas out of them. I have tried everything, I have read everything on this site, purchased the cd from rockjok studied it all, got the Clymer manual.

A little history here, the carbs were completely disassembled when I picked the bike up, I mean every part of each carb was in a baggie all together, and the carb housings were in a box, about a week later sitting around and staring at this pile of parts I finally figured out how they went together, don't ask me how but I got everything back together and working, ran out to the garage from the kitchen table put them on the bike and she fired right up, for about ten seconds. Cool it was working, next do the triple clean put it all together with new jets and gaskets and needles set the floats, up to about the tenth time on that one, put it all back together again and again and again, etc..... just about ready to beat the thing to death now.

What I need to find out is this, has any one seen a 79 special with four tee's, two between the 1&2 and two between the 3&4 carbs hosed straight to the petcocks, my question is does it matter which tee goes to which outlet on the petcock. I do not have and do not remember this bike ever having an octopus on it as I purchased this bike back in 90 and sold it in 96, now I have it back.

Any help would be appreciated.

[DiverRay]

On the carbs you have are TWO "T's", and upper and lower between carbs 1&2, and 3&4. The upper "T" is the VENT, and goes to the nipples on the airbox, if you still have one. If the airbox is gone, just put a 6" tube on each "T", and let it set up under the fuel tank.
The bottom rear "T" is the fuel inlet. This is the connection for the fuel line. The specail has an "octapus" fuel line system, and so,e people have removed it. Do a search on "fuel line", and you should be able to find the threads.
If this does not help, post a comment on this thread, and we can ask more questions to try and figure out what is not working.
Ray

[sxigh]

where's the gas pouring from?

[Nightflier240]

the gas seems to be squrting out of the jet on the aircleaner side of the carb I think that it is the main

[Nightflier240]

I do not ever remember this bike having an octopus on it, and it always ran fine with all four of the lines from the carb ging up to the petcocks. Does this mean that I need to find one?

[sxigh]

definitely sounds like you've got a set of standard carbs w/ the t-fittings. top one goes to the box, bottom goes to the cock, and there should be a smaller line coming from each the 2 and 3 motor side carb boots, plug those into the other petcock connections (the fitting that protudes to the front/rear of the bike, not towards the motor.)

'course if you've got a set of standard carbs on a special motor with special petcocks, that's not my area of expertise.

the only other thing I'd say to check if fuel is getting into the airbox are your floats. are they leaking? dunk em in some water and see if any bubbles come up.

[Nightflier240]

I have checked the floats they do not leak, did the boiling water thing. These are the carbs that were on the bike when I first bought it back in 90, what I am saying is I never changed the carbs, what the previous owner did I do not know.

So if this is a special with standard carbs what is next?

[sxigh]

could be they're still the original carbs, that the octopus system has just been removed. from what I understand, one reason why overflow happens, aside from faulty floats & float valves, is inadequate venting. if you're plugging yr vent tube into the petcock, then you're not allowing the bowl to breathe.

[Nightflier240]

Any idea where I might find an octopus for this system or is there a way to bypass the octopus?

[sxigh]

you can run these bikes without the octopus but I'm not sure if it involves different petcocks or not. try a search on fuel + petcocks + octopus, etc. and you should be able to come up with lots of relevant information.

[TopCatGr58]

Errrr....Xcuse me, but you're mistaken!

Hey Nightflier and SXigh,

There is NO such thing as Special and Standard CARBS! There ARE special and Standard Petcocks. The Standard petcocks are vacuum controlled, and THEY are the ones that you would connect the vacuum tubes from the intakes onto

The Specials are just gravity feed, they have an OFF, ON, PRIME, RESERVE. The Octopus was the vacuum control portion of this system, but it isn't really needed. You just have to remember to turn OFF your petcocks when you park it, to provide extra protection against carb float needle failure which would then FLOOD the carbs, and possibly get into the intakes, pistons, and eventually into the OIL!

The Upper "T" fittings are the VENTS, just connect tubes to them, and you can "T" them together and vent to air or connect them to simple filters, but they MUST BE VENTED TO AIR, NOT CAPPED OFF! DO NOT CONNECT FUEL LINES TO THEM!

The lower "T" fittings are the ONLY ones you connect the fuel lines to. The petcocks have 2 spouts. BOTH FLOW FUEL. One is for RUN. The Other is for PRIME. The forward spout is PRIME! You can either put tubes on both and run them to a "Y" fitting that you can get from the auto store, (Better than a "T" less bend angle to not to kinked) and then run them to the LOWER "T" fittings, you may find it easier to run left petcock to right carb set and vice versa, again to avoid bends!

I'm suspecting that IF you have had fuel lines connected to the UPPER "T"'s, then that's why they are flooding! However, IF you have NOT had them connected to fuel lines, then it brings us back to the float needle valves, seats, and float settings.

Did you find some red washers amongst the parts, they belonged UNDER the valve needle seats, as a gasket! You said you got new needles, but you didn't say whether you got new SEATS! The needles are metal, and the seats may not have been perfectly smooth!?

[sxigh]

there we go, thanks for settin us straight TC. I thought I was close, but yer dead on.

[Nightflier240]

As I sat here reading and thinking about this I like Topcats advice. I think that I'll try this.
I'll let you know tomorrow how it goes.
BTW, I totaly rebuilt the carbs seats, jets, valves washers and gaskets. And without all that varnish in there, they actually look like carbs again.