Bypassing the Octy

[DJ48170]

1979 XS Special (w/octy)

This will probably be a quick one. I replace my battery last week, and when I did, I started the bike to make sure I could take it to work the next day. It started just fine, like last season. The next morning I had a pool of gas under the bike. A colleague at work suggested the floats, but I had never had such a problem. I could not immediately find the leak, but when I pulled the tank up, just a little, two of the fuel lines pulled off the "T's".

Thinking this was the problem, I replaced my fuel lines, one of which had a hole where the hose clamp when through the line. I replaced all of the lines. The bike started immediately. The next day, it barely started, and stall when I gave it gas. When I would tip it far to the right, it would start and idle, but stall if I gave it gas. Now it won't start at all.

Did I connect the lines to the wrong petcock nipples? Does the "T" from the Octy and petcock have a flow path or valve to make it one way? Do I not have enough gas in the tank to feed the bike - perhaps a gallon or less.

If, and only IF, I take out the octy, what do I do about the vacuum line from the octy to the #2 carb. Do I cap it at the carb?

Any other thoughts about why it may be gas starved?

[CatatonicBug]

The center lines (the ones with the T's on them) connect to the rear petcock nipples, and the outer ones connect to the forward nipples. If you turn the petcocks to "Prime", it will bypass the outer lines, and feed fuel directly to the T's, and straight to the carbs. You may want to try this with them set to Reserve, since your fuel level is low.

IF you decide to remove the octy (you can take it apart and re-build it), you would just cap off the vacuum port on the #2 intake boot.

[DJ48170]

I would only remove the octy if ...

I could not get the fuel issue resolved. It seems the rebuild task has little benefit consider the time it probably would take. I guess I could remove it temporarily and ride without it until I rebuilt it.

It just seems to be a weird problem since there were no problems before. When I have to take gas lines off/on it makes a mess and I have to do it outside. My "shop" is my attached garage and getting gas on the floor causes the smell to get in the house. The little MRS. doesn't like that too much. Well, neither do I. I just got the smell out finally from when it really "wet the bed".

I will recheck based on your feedback Cat. Thanks!

[CatatonicBug]

If you turn your petcocks to "Off", you should only get a tiny dribble (maybe a tablespoon) of fuel out of each side when you pull the hoses. Maybe you can just lay a rag on the carb boots to catch it, then toss the rag outside? Either way, I would suggest moving the bike to the driveway when working with fuel anyway, as we have seen way too many bikes/houses go up in flames because of spilled fuel.