Will have the carbs back soon

[bikerphil]

Well, I worked on the bike all weekend. Got the carbs on and it's absolutely poring fuel out the air box. Obviously a stuck float or somesuch. I'll send Rick an email and see what he thinks. I can't bring myself to tear it down again this weekend.

When you fill the bowls for the first time, try tapping the bowls with a screwdriver handle. That way, the floats will raise up smoothly with the gas, instead of sticking at the bottom.

[Larrym]

Leakamus Fuelimus???!!!

Well, I worked on the bike all weekend. Got the carbs on and it's absolutely poring fuel out the air box. Obviously a stuck float or somesuch. I'll send Rick an email and see what he thinks. I can't bring myself to tear it down again this weekend.

Dude...Duuude!!! So sorry to hear that the install didn't go perfectly.

Even when I myself do a carb rack I bench test'em for leaks before I wrangle them onto the bike/airbox and open the petcocks.

Lookey HERE.

Not as refined/slick as MRO's setup but he's a Pro and I'm still in the amateur class.

[Bellerophon]

Dude...Duuude!!! So sorry to hear that the install didn't go perfectly.

Even when I myself do a carb rack I bench test'em for leaks before I wrangle them onto the bike/airbox and open the petcocks.

Lookey HERE.

Not as refined/slick as MRO's setup but he's a Pro and I'm still in the amateur class.

Excellent idea Larry. Now you understand whay I asked the fuel line question earlier. When it started leaking I thought I might have hooked'em up wrong. I did not.

[DGXSER]

A few things I have found that can cause the floats to stick open..

... Gasket surface overhanging the carb bowl edge, I trim it back on the sides to ensure the floats will not get hung up.

... Use the tang on the back of the floats to ensure they do not drop to far.

... Make sure you are using fuel line that will not flake apart when pushed over the barbs on the Ts. Those little flakes can get past the screens on the float valves and stick under the needle valve.

[Bellerophon]

While I'd like to say I'm some sort of a genius mechanic, but I'm not. I did however follow bikerphil's advice and and it quit, slowly but surely. I pulled the bottom of the air box off so I could see which carbs were overflowing, and they all were. As I tapped the float bowls they all quit, one at a time. Rick used composite floats on the rebuild, and I'm not sure if that had anything to do with it. I left the petcocks on prime for over an hour and no more leaking.

[DGXSER]

Excellent, Glad you got them to stop misbehavin.

[bikerphil]

Yep, any time the bowls are dry the floats are prone to stick. Sometimes it's the float itself or it could be the needle valve cocked in it's seat. Once you have fuel in there you shouldn't have that problem again.

[somesuch]

My experience has been that genuine Mikuni float valves look a bit better (through a magnifying glass ) and seal properly out of the box. The float valves that come in various rebuild kits, often require tapping on the float bowls, "smoothing" with a pencil, etc. to start sealing initially, but work fine from then on. Did you ask Rick what brand float valves he used?

--Nick

[jetmechmarty]

Yep, any time the bowls are dry the floats are prone to stick. Sometimes it's the float itself or it could be the needle valve cocked in it's seat. Once you have fuel in there you shouldn't have that problem again.

I still need to tend to mine with similar problem. If I go WOT in 1st-2nd gear, my bowls go low enough to start the problem anew. A well placed whack with a dead blow hammer makes things right again. I need to get to that soon.