bike keeps flooding

[madsin]

While trying to start my bike it began to flood out the gas, dumping it out through the drain hole of the airbox.Everytime I would try to start it it would run for about 15-30 seconds and die out,then dump gas out the drain hole.On further inspection I found gas in the airbox and the oil pan.I don't have a lot of mechanical knowledge, Any help?Thanks

[Hobbit]

Greetings

First of all welcome to the xs group. Next, welcome to the wonderful world of old motorcycle carburators.
I'd suggest that first you go to the "Tech Tips" area and maintenance, carburetors and you'll find a wealth of information.

There is a lot of carb info at this site, and I suggest you read about them before you try to fix them. They will at least have to come apart and cleaned (probably triple cleaned and inspected.

Your profile does not include your location, xssives are everywhere and may be willing to assist.

[soccer4m]

flooding

looks like the leaky float, needle syndrome. Immediately drain your oil before further damage and read the endless information in a search on the site for flooding. I assume you have an xj or xs,,,please state next time. Also list past behaviour of the bike, last started, repairs and the site could help more,,,remember change the oil and filter asap, before starting anything,,,,,,good luck, Mike

[randy]

madsin,

Ditto what Mike said, you'll have to pull the carbs and most likely replace the float needles / seats. If you're lucky, maybe you just have a stuck float or two. From your profile, I see that you have a 79 Special. They use the same carbs as the 78E & 79F. Look up Blaine's carb faq's here on the forum for guidance and it should be an easy fix. (that is, if you've ever taken apart a carburettor before ?)

If you run into trouble, don't hesitate to ask questions. The only dumb question is the one that isn't asked!

BTW, there is no such thing as 'triple clean'. If you do it right the first time, they only need to be cleaned once.

[madsin]

Hi-thanks for all the tips.First off,I am located in California(northern) since I forgot to add that to the profile.I have only ownde the bike for a short time(5 months),got it off of Ebay,and basically took one ride that seemed to go well,then parked it for about a week with the petcocks left on(I know ,I know,don

[Czekus21]

I park my 79 special with the petcocks on all the time. The only time I ever shut them off is when I pull the tank. Do you still have the Octopus fuel set up ? or was the octopus removed? ( That's the thingy on top of the carbs on the left side of the motor with the four fuel lines coming out of it )

[madsin]

I got kicked off before I could finish the last thought.So,petcocks left on,flooding happened.Then I found gas in the oil pan,so drained it all,put on new filter,new oil,and took petcocks apart.I just put everything back together and it fired up,and within the 5 minutes I let it run,it didn't start spitting gas out again.The questions I have now are
1.Will it start doing this again without cleaning the carbs,etc

2.Now that it was running for a few minutes without the gas leak,I am having massive amounts of smoke from both tailpipes,what could cause this?

I don't know what ype of work had been done on this bike previously,the one ride I was able to get out of it before having the problems start was about 20 miles total and seemed problem free.

[madsin]

The octopus has been removed as far as I can tell,and now there is only one fuel line coming off of each of the petcocks.This means if I put it on PRI it just dumps out onto the ground.

[Czekus21]

In the tech tips and in previous threads, this problem has been addresed. Theses bikes used the engines vacume to regulate the fuel through the octopus. There is a fix for removeing the octopus and you will have to shut the fuel off when not in use. On the carbs, there are 4 fuel line connections. The 2 on the lower side are where you fuel intake should be, the 2 on the upper side should be going to the air breather. as far as the petcock in the pri position throwing fuel on the ground, a simple cap with a butterfly clamp should take care of that. I'm going to take a wild guess here. You have individual air cleaner pods on each carb correct? or do you still have the original air box ?

[workerbee]

IMHO, there is only one thing that will cause flooding back to the airbox - a stuck float (or two, or three etc) try hooking up a bicycle pump ( or low pressure air hose) to your fuel line (I guess you have two, so one at a time) and push air through them until gas stops blowing out the overflow lines (vents). Don't hook up a high pressure line - you could do some damage. once you've done that re-connect the fuel lines and see if she floods again. The air trick may not work all the time, but when it does it'll make you happy 'cos you don't have to pull the carbs and clean them.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Madsin,

With an old bike and tank, there's a good chance of a fair amount of fine rust particles forming in there. You'll want to hook up some inline fuel filters SOON. When you removed and cleaned the petcocks, either with NEW rubber fuel director/gaskets, or just with same parts, you may have rebent the tension spring a bit to help it seal better? But, the problem was in the Carbs, the float needle valve NOT sealing when the carb over filled up with fuel due to the petcocks being left in the ON/flow position! Sometimes, it can be caused just by small particles of dirt getting in betweeen the needle valve and seat, but can also be due to excessively dirty/gummed carbs, so the floats don't move freely, and so can't shut off the flow adequately!?

Are you sure you drained ALL The oil, not just removed the OIL FILTER COVER and that little bit of oil just in that?? There is a pan bolt just behind where the oil filter chamber is, and you will have needed to drain it from there. IF you did this, then it's probably just some residual fuel that got into the exhaust, as well as a little bit perhaps still left in the engine, it will burn off soon.

BUT, if you didn't check to make sure you got at least 3 quarts of fluid when you drained it, or you didn't drain it from the pan plug, then you probably STILL have gas in your oil, along with TOO MUCH OIL...and it will be pumped out the vent tube into the airbox, and back thru the carbs, and will cause smoking!? Hopefully, this is not the case!

The Prime spout, is also the RESERVE spout, so capping it off can cause you to loose your RESERVE function, so you might want to get a "Y" connector and some extra fuel line and run both together from one petcock, then from the single outlet of the "Y" to one pair of carbs, same for other side.....hint, run them across bike to OTHER side, helps prevent kinks and too low of loops!
HTH.
T.C.

[madsin]

I still have the original airbox not the pods.The capping off idea seems like a good one to me.The lines from the petcocks are going to the lower portions of the carbs,and the lines from the airbox are going to the upper.So,since I am not getting the overflow at the moment,any ideas on the smoke coming out the tailpipes?

[Czekus21]

What TopCatGr58 said....

[madsin]

TopCatGR58---I did bend the tension spring a bit and put the old parts back in.I also drained the oil from both the oil filter housing,and pulled the actual drainplug, so am sure I got all the oil out.
So now it stands with the bike being able to start and continue to run,no gas currently overflowing,but it is smoking.

[skids]

Re: bike keeps flooding

If you only get the problem when running the bike and it does not happen with the bike off and in the prime position, I think the problem is that you have a clogged or plugged vent for the carb(s). The 78 and 79s have breather hoses connected to the airbox, adjacent to the crankcase breather hose. The later model airbox has those nipples on the airbox filled with plastic and there are no breather hoses from the carbs...instead, the later model carbs have an extra hole at the inlet bell of the carbs. Thos later model carbs have tiny breather passages (pinholes if I remember it right) above the bowls in the carb bodies. Make sure that your bike isn't using older carbs connected to a newer airbox with plugged nipples. If you are using older carbs ind cone filters, you cant just plug off those breather hoses.

Originally posted by madsin
While trying to start my bike it began to flood out the gas, dumping it out through the drain hole of the airbox.Everytime I would try to start it it would run for about 15-30 seconds and die out,then dump gas out the drain hole.On further inspection I found gas in the airbox and the oil pan.I don't have a lot of mechanical knowledge, Any help?Thanks