Gas Leaking From Drive Shaft 85' Maxim XJ700

I recently bought this old sexy bike with only 8000 miles on it. Now, at the time of purchase she ran, though a bit high in her RPMS. So i brought her home, took her off the truck, started taking her back to the shed and guess what?... dropped her. Only on her side for two seconds and i pulled her up. So my idiot butt tried to start her the next day and she wouldnt crank over. Couldnt get her to fire up. On another forum they told me I put her in Hydrolock by trying to start her so soon. Cant compress liquids it seems. So now, when I take her out on the driveway to do work on her she leaks a LOT of gas from the driveshaft. Not around the shaft, under it or above, but from the very bottom of the shaft itself. I took out all the spark plugs and bought new ones, and I'm leaving the holes open overnight, hoping it will evaporate out.
With all my reasearch so far I'm starting to think I need to rebuild my entire carb set. New needles, new floats ect ect. you get the drift. I'm VERY new to motorcycles and not sure what to do, or if I'm right or anything. I'm actually confused and its no bueno.
So pleeeease. Help me get my first bike up and running?? Even if you tell me what I gotta do and I gotta take her to a shop. I just want to know what it is I need to get this baby purring.
Yours truely
-Street Legal Kid

 

Take some pictures of this leak - there should be no way for gas to get in to the shaft. The shaft is an entirely separate entity form the engine.

What position is your petcock in? If it is in RES then put it to ON.

First let figure out where you gas is really coming from then we can help you get it fixed and running.

Also add your location - there could be someone close by willing to help.

 

I've got pics of the leak already. I posted them on the other forum. Right above the Kickstand above where the headers connect to the exhaust, there is a rubber sleeve with a looong spring holding it in place. when I removed the spring and pulled back the sleeve there is a metal shaft/pipe/?driveshaft? connected to the same box where my clutch is attached. At the juncture where that shaft/pipe/?driveshaft? and that box is, is where the leak is coming from. Right at the very bottom of the shaft. It leaks a LOT when I move it. And yes, I made sure the petcock is in the ON postition.
-SLKid

 

Ok. Took some pics with my phone and edited them with paint. Here's where its leaking. I cant find any other leaks except for a little wetness on the end of the carb overflow pipes

 

there is absolutely no way there could be gas leaking out of your driveshaft.

 

OK Your drive shaft is from the union in that boot back and is full of gear oil. Where you are point to is the seal for the middle gear shaft that does indeed drive your drive shaft.

that seal and the middle gear are in oil so I am assuming you are seeing gas and oil leaking. That leads to 2 issues

1 - you are getting gas in your oil - rebuild your carbs
2 - the seal is shot and needs replacing.

However before you tear into the seal job you could have overflow from your carb vents or it could be running down form the airbox (gets into there through the crank vent - the black tube in pics - when the oil overfills with gas)

From your description of leaking when moved it may well be the seal.

 

Figures. Thats another thing that i thought of. From the first time someone told me that there was no WAY gas could be leaking from there I assumed that there is gas in the oil, cause, obviously, thats where the oil is located. Sooo.. I need to drain EVERYTHING out, oil, gas, and rebuild the carbs, then put new oil in her. Gotcha... Dang thats a big job for a newb... Anyone know where to get a good carb kit, seals, and a service manual??

 

Look at the XJ4EVER forum then PM Chacal on this site. He has manuals and most every part known to man for these bikes. He has fair prices, fast shipping and a ton of knowledge.

Then look at these links:

Clean enrichment circuit
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8918.html

Clean carbs
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2908.html

Carb Sync
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2132.html

Bench sync
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6366.html

Fuel filter
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6352.html

Float Height
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... t+dry.html

 

This... is getting diffucult... Gotta wait till my tax check comes in to do work on this baby... Thats the worst part... waiting.. Oh well. After I get some cash Maybe I'll find someone who wants to make a trip out here with some tools and lend a hand!
Thanks a lot! You gave me a starting point on "How to Fix'er up!"
Looks like my gf wont get any more shoes for a while
-SLKid

 

It's really not hard. Just take your time - advice is always available here. Money is always the problem

 

well, does your oil smell like gas? i think you hope thats your problem, and that you left the petcock on pri, and you dont need to rebuild your carbs, not sur ehow to change the seal though. Ive got the same exact bike... but with some costmentic mods and sportster pipes

 

You probably have to replace the Shaft seal Which also brings another issue you said gas leaking? you may have gas in the oil check the p.e.t.c.o.c.k. position if this is the case yo uwill need new oil and oil filter and the shaft seal .

 

Have you removed the air filter and checked to see if your air box is filled with gas? There is a vent tube that goes to that location from your airbox. An oil change is a great place to start. It is cheap. It only requires 2 1/2 quarts of oil and a filter. This would let you know if you had gas in your oil or not for starters. Next, change your plugs. About 2 dollars each. After removing, you can look into the cylinders and see if one is filled with gas. If so, you are hydrolocked, if not, leave the plugs out and turn it over for about 30 seconds to clear the cylinders. This should give you plenty of cheap information to determine which way to go next.

 

Allrighty. Got the air Filter out. There WAS gas inside. I could smell it. It defianlty needs a new air filter. Its disgusting. So Now i'ma take a little of the carbs off, just enough so I'm comfortable with it, clean those peices, then put it back together. I'll get more thourough with it when I get more comfortable taking my baby apart. Its all new to me and a little scary.
So, with that said, Gas in the air filter? Whats next on my to do list besides thouroughly clean the carbs and change the oil.
(Check my oil post! Tryin to decide what to put in it. And where do I drain my oil? where my gear shifter is? Take off those hex bolts and it should drain out right??)

 

Awesome sites for Air Filters XJ700

Babbits.com Has Diagrams for almost alllll parts of many models.
K&N Air Filter $45

BikeBandits.com Has UNI $25 Air Filter

CheapCycles.com has UNI $22 Air Filter

Is Uni a good brand? Or should I spend the extra cash and get a K&N Performance one?

 

Slow your roll Kid. There is a drain plug in the bottom center of the engine. Look on the bottom front of the engine and you'll see a metal "bubble" with a bolt in the center of it. That's your oil filter. Look below that for the actual drain plug.

No need to take off the shifter cover.

You don't really take off "bit" of the carbs, you remove them as a rack. Loosen the boot clamps, disconnect the choke cable, and throttle cable. Disconnect the fuel line, remove the fuel tank. Then you wiggle the carb rack out of it's boots.

 

Need to turn your fuel valve to prime, while looking into the air box, see if you have gas running into the air box. If you do, you need to replace your float valvee needles. If not, drain everything completely. Replace air filter.Change oil. Clean plugs. Put some SEAFOAM into the tank. Put some SEAFOAM into the oil. I have had good luck with 15w40 oil design for diesel motors (ROTELLA) as it is non foaming.

 

Mkay,
so I had a chance to jump out before i went into work. I had a question about changing oil, and heres a picture.

 

Admittedly, I don't know much about the 700's, but that's where the drain plug is on my bike. You're missing the drain bolt? Did you actually run the engine this way?? Have you checked your sight glass on the right side of the engine to check the oil level?

It's difficult to see in this picture but is there ANYTHING in that hole??

 

Well, that explains why gas, and not a mix of gas and oil came out of the driveshaft seal- - NO OIL !!

You don't have to rebuild the carbs to re-seat the float needles (that may have disloged due to dropping the bike) you can get lucky by gently tapping on them, but that assumes your carbs are ready-to-run.
And it's a good thing you didn't start it !
Time to look in the carbs. Just to make sure all is in order.

I would open the oil filter housing just to make sure there was a filter, re-use that filter, add the cheapest 20W50 with NO friction modifiers, and run it to see if the rear seal responds to having oil, instead of gas on it, it may seal. Then do a proper oil change in 100 miles.

And welcome to the site !!

 

Yeah I looked in the sight glass. there is still fluid in there. Since I got the bike there's been fluid in there. Nothing has drained out of that hole since I got it.. maybe they broke the bolt off?? I'ma go check in a minute. I'm also gonna see if I can take off the carb rack right now too, jsut to get it off and prep it for later. Cant wait till next payday. Owners Manual and Service manual is a must. I'ma go buy a fuel filter too and try to install her before I get her runnin too. ~Sigh~ Lets hope its not broken off in the drain plug.

 

ok. Turns out that was the plug. I dont know why it has threads going in if you just remove the enitire plug. jsut seemed weird to me. I took out the plug and let the GAS/oil mix out. It was mostly gas that came out. So Come paycheck time I'll just re-oil the girl. Gonna take out the oil filter now. Sorry I post so much! I like coming back and lettin you guys know whats up. Its exciting to finally have my own project. Ok. Filter and carb time. After I feed my dog
-SLKid

 

Don't worry you can't post too much. Keep us up too date. Once you get your carbs cleaned and the needle valves straightened out your gas problem should go away.

I'm still concerned about your seal leak. If you are getting oil through there you will need to replace it.

 

The threading in the middle of the drain plug is supposed to hold a screw that holds a magnet that is supposed to hold foreign (or domestic?) objects.
Your screw broke off, but the end still plugged the hole, right?
(it's a drain plug-plug!)

 

Been a hot minute since I posted. Alright!
So I checked out the petcock, put 'er on prime, and waited about a minute and a half. Nothin drippin into the air vent. Cool. So dont gotta worry about that. And. Be proud of me. I finally got off those carbs. My first set. It was very liberating! Anyway. Guess I gotta clean em now. Does anyone know how you're supposed to place the carbs in a carb bath? Do you like, completely disassemble one or two carbs at a time and just drop all the pieces parts into the bath? Just curious. Gotta wait till the 27th to do anything anyway.
Thanks all!
SLKid

 

You don't want to soak the rubber bits in carb cleaner it will eat them. The best thing to do IMHO is break them down completely. Check the rubber parts to see if they need to be replaced. However if you can afford it just replace them all and be done with it, I think I paid < $100 for new needles and seats, all the rubber, new butterfly screws and the cleaning tools I needed.

 

Whew. I know its late, i'm still up takin apart this carb system. well, takin parts off, inspecting them, and putting them right back on anyway. I wish you guys could see how dirty this bad girl is.. ~shiver~ Gunk in every hole imaginable.. defiantly gonna need a carb bath and a couple more cans of Carb Cleaner.. Oh well.
Anyway, can ya'll tell me about this...

 

Looks like your #3 jet is just stripped a bit from a previous owner/ 'mechanic' trying to get it out. as long as the jet hole is ok you don't have to worry about it

 

Looks like you're doing well. You could break the rack apart, and disassemble only one carb at a time for cleaning, then reassemble and move on to the next. That way you always have 3 examples in case you can't remember where something went.

Also be advised that certain parts are NOT interchangeable between carbs, and that certain parts MUST be replaced in EXACTLY the position they were removed from. For instance, the butterfly plates must go on their original carb, and don't flip them over or anything or they won't close properly.

 

I keep hearing those words a lot. "butterfly plate and butterfly valves" Correct me if i'm wrong but thats the Doorway and the mechanism that opens it right?

 

Yeah, the round plate on the front of the carb that opens and closes. On the other side of the carb are the "sliders", the brass plungers that move up and down.

Make sure to do the clunk test. Search for it here in the forums.

 

Here you go - handy reference

Clean enrichment circuit
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=8918.html

Clean carbs
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2908.html

Carb Sync
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2132.html

Bench sync
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6366.html

Fuel filter
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6352.html

Testing a relay
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=6809.html

Diagnose starting issues
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=7828.html

Clutch adj
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... tment.html

Float Height
http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic ... t+dry.html

 

Allrighty, so i took almost everything off and wrote down a list of probs, and things I gotta repair. Broken gasket and such. I remembered the floats after I had put it all back together. so they only things I didnt clean was the plungers in the back, the floats and the float needles, and the butterfly valve and flap. Man that thing was dirty. Thanks for the tip with the guitar string! I love playing guitar so I always keep an extra set of strings handy. That enrichment circuit is as good as new. So when I get my repair kit I'll have to take her apart again anyway so I'll finish up and double dose some of the cleaning. How do I get the plungers 'arm' off??
-SLKid

 

I assume you mean the enrichment (choke?) You have to remove the screw at the arm where the cable goes then loosen each of the claw set screws at the plungers. The rod pulls out and tehn you unscrew each plunger. Be a good idea to clean it out.

I would take the bowls back off and remove the needle seats. They have a screen that may be clogged with garbage. Also flush your fuel rail while you have them out. Won't take you long.

 

Oh I left the bowls off so I could jsut come back to them. If I clean under the needle wont the fluids go up into the hat? Should I take the hat off again too? And what exactly is a fuel rail and how do I flush it? And oooone more question. If my float heights are off, (in 3 and 4) how do i actually ADJUST them?
-SLKid

 

Yes you should take the slides out - not much should go up there but better safe.

Look at where your fuel line connects - its a pipe that runs through the carbs via interconnecting pipes. Gas fills that "rail" and the needle seats are inserted into it. Gas goes through the screens in the seats and into the bowls when the needles open (floats lower due to gas level). Take out all the seats, clean the screens. Spray carb cleaner down the length of the rail to flush it best you can. You can clean it better if you break the rack later.

TO adjust the floats look at the one link I gave you. The tang is the part of the float bracket the needle hangs from. You bend that to adjust the height.

Let me know if I have to clarify any of that - makes sense to me - may not to you :wink:

 

By the way I am assuming you are trying to make due until you can get parts and get the bike running again.

There really is not substitute for breaking the carbs down and doing a complete cleaning...

 

Nope! All makes perfect sense to me. Breakin apart the rack doesnt scare me, its gettin it back together right. Mis-alined carbs doesnt sound fun

 

So heres a quick shot of what all my fuel jets looked like. Absolutely disgusting! All super funked up on the get and indside the passage where it goes. And the same amount of gunk was found in the fuel passage/drain screw. Nasty

 

Yuck. You want to be sure to get the little holes clear too as you clean them.

 

Ok.
Tax money came in so I bought some stuff at Napa. I'm waitin on my paypal account to activate so i can get my seat washer, some RnR fluid and rebuild kits.
I got a battery charger at Napa, along with a fuel filter, some seafoam, and 10w40 Valvoline motorcycle oil. (which I'm a little skeptical about cause its not 20w40... but the guy there has a yamaha too and thats what he runs in it and he says it works great... eh..)
My next step is to that that choke arm off and finish my cleaning of my arduous, 4 carb system. And when the rebuild kits come in, finish puttin her back together, bench-sync, put carbs back on, replace air filter, and try starting her up! It's gonna be exciting. After I get her started I'll see if she'll stay up and runnin real nice, then run her over to the neighbors or a shop to get her idle speed set and the carbs professionally sync-ed.
Gettin there!!
-SLKid

 

Mkay,
So I realize I went off topic for this post. So I'm done posting here. The problem with the gas leaking from the shaft, I've decided (Over long hours pouring over this website and constant looking at my bike and many hair pulling sleepless nights) Is that when I recived the bike, my neighbor and I couldnt find an "OFF" position on the petcock. I do belive that he turned it to PRI and I didnt look at it again for a day or two. This in turn flooded my air box, which in turn flooded my crankcase. So! Being flooded I tried turning her over and fouled my plugs. I put new oil and a new oil filter in the other day and rolled her around a bit. No Leaks. Awesome.
Moral of the story??
PRI is NOT the OFF Position!!!!
Case closed on the Leaking Drive Shaft.
Good job Scooby Squad

-SLKid