Gas/oil in air box.

What should I do? To make it short as possible I pick up this '85 Maxim 700 locally and the first thing I do in the attempt to find a position where the petcock actually stops the gas is leave it overnight in the RES position. Now I have drained the gas tank and removed the petcock waiting for ordered rebuild kit which I hope will put me in the 50% success rate. I have also drained the crankcase, installed a new oil filter with the help of Scrape and put oil back in the engine.
But while the gas was overflowing the carbs (though I got one opinion that said the gas was actually flowing back through the vacuum hose though I doubt that is the case just from what I've seen of how the petcock works) it overflowed so much that there was actually oil/gas mixture to be seen while looking down through part #20 of the included illustration, which I assume looks down into the breather/air box (not named in drawing). While running the engine there was a good couple pints of the stuff spewed out of the overflow hose at the bottom of the box.
Should I be looking at a replacemtn air filter in this case and/or finding some solvent to dump in there to remove the leftover oil/gas sludge that's still on the bottom of the box?

Good grief, what a long URL!
http://houseofmotorcycles.bikebandit.co ... XJ700N.asp

I am sending off for the XJCD right away but while I wait for it to arrive I'll take any advice and suggestions for putting this right.
I'll be glad to provide any other details you might ask for.
Let me add as an aside that after the oil change the engine fired right up with the leftover gas in the carbs, no choke, no hesitation, sounded real nice. Hopefully no serious damage done.
Thanks in advance,
-Mark

 

For the gas to flood into the crank case it has to go by the petcock and also the float valves.

So you have to correct the petcock problem which it sounds like you have a kit on order! Some members don't trust the repair kits and opt to change the petcock to a manual valve which has an "off" position. Basically your choice, I went with the Kawasaki repair kit that fits my valve and have been keeping an eye on my oil level prior to starting the bike.

The float valves can be polished or replaced with new needles and seats. I opted for the new needles and seats, but one stuck open and needed a tap on the side of the bowl to fix. Haven't had problems since, touch wood!

If you can see oil/fuel by looking down into the air cleaner box, I would suggest you remove the top, pull out the filter and clean up what you can. Remember whatever is in this box will get sucked up into the engine! Have a good look at the filter and replace if necessary. Mine was brand new and was soaked only on the bottom half and being cheap I spayed it with brake cleaner, blew it dry, and stuck it back in!