79 xs11 special carb problems

[jwolf265]

Hey all, thanks for reading. I got this bike after it had sat for 3 or so years. Problem is I have gas coming out the back of the left side carb. Think it is only the onem but might be both on that side(when sitting ion the bike). I am right now soaking them with sea foam, but other than that is there anything I might need to do? This bike was well taken care of before it sat for so long. Also have windjammer if anyone wants one, thanks for the help guys!

[DGXSER]

This is a problem with the float needle valve not shutting the fuel flow to the carb bowl when it gets filled.

The cause can range form a piece of gunk made it past that little screen to get between the float valve and the seat, to the float valve itself is to worn and won't seal with the seat. Typically, if the bike sa that long and your opening the bowls up anyway, I would replace the float valve seat and the needle valve in all four. I would also check the float levels.

If you have fresh seats and needles and they leak when you first put gas to the carbs, sometimes the floats hang up a little and tap on the side of the bowl with a screwdriver or the like can correct that issue.

HTH

[WMarshy]

You might want to read up on some of the Tech tips for carb cleaning and do some searches on the site. All of your answers have already been answered at one point or another about carb cleaning. You could to damage to the shaft seals if you are soaking the whole carb body (definitely will, if soaking in carb cleaner, not so sure about seafoam)... Lots of little things to take apart in them so if your not use to doing any carb work take them apart and clean them one at a time so you have a reference to work from. And always blow them out with compressed air before putting them back together. GL and welcome to the XS world.

Also, it would help to know what model your bike is. You can add your specs to your signature so everyone else knows what you have.

[Larrym]

Good Shop Practices/Safety

jwolf265,

Welcome.

I can appreciate the "minimalist" approach of seeing if the Seafoam loosens things up or breaks up any varnish which might be causing the carb to leak. The odds are 50/50: it will or won't work. If it does take care of things then you won't have to go "invasive". Cool.

In the meantime you have what I'd call a "watch-out" situation. Flammable fluids and vapors where they shouldn't be. For example there's an excellent ignition source directly below the carbs: the electric starter. I's strongly urge you to not make any "starting" attempts with the carb dripping fuel. Also recommended to do any work outside the garage for now: good ventilation for you and away from other ignition sources like water heaters/furnaces.

Running the engine without the airbox and a leaking carb means any misfire/backfire could be quite dramatic. Might I suggest having an appropriate A/B/C fire extinguisher on hand? I'm not being alarmist, hopefully. Just an ex-firefighter/mechanic chiming in with his own "considerations" and best wishes.

The fuel you see coming out the intake of the carb just might have made it the other direction as well: Into the cylinder then the crankcase. This thins out the oil possibly to the point of causing nasty things to happen to the bearings inside. Suggestion: check the oil level while on the centerstand to verify it's not "magically" overfull. Taking the fill cap off and smelling it too: if it smells like gas then don't run the engine until that's taken care of.

Base your actions on what you find and then let us all know if we can help in any way.

[XS1100 Newbie]

After all i have been through, my advise is just pull them and clean them. Replace if necessary only bad parts. Look through the tech tips, and don't take short cuts.

[jwolf265]

Thanks for all the advice, I did pull and clean all the carbs, good news is it fired right up, ran crappy but for sitting for so long I am happy it ran, bad news is the number 1 carb still leaks out of the one pilot hole into the airbox. I will see if the needle is seated right and if not will go from there! thanks again!

[motoman]

Larrym is dead-on with that advice!.........already had a member here couple weeks ago lose his home due to fire caused from fuel leak on his XS. Take what Larrym says seriously!

[DenyP]

I restored a bike last winter. The PO was riding it the fuel leak you describe and w/o the filter in the box. It caught fire while he was going down the road and burned him till he dumped it. Quite a mess when I bought it. The left petcock was melted, just a slag of pot metal attached to what was left of the filter. Air box melted and warped. On the left side, the tank was burned, side cover melted off, paint on the rear shock, shock reflector, turn signal and tail light lens melted. The seat was half burnt away and the wiring had to be replaced. He dumped it on the opposite side bending the hell out of the crash bar and wiping off the front and rear turn signal lights. I mention all this stuff so you can visualize what the rider must have looked like. There was a lot of melted black stuff on the tank, side and exhaust system. Nuf said

Deny