Oh No! Carbs spewing fuel.

I just went out to do a little work on my Turbo. While in the garage, I thought I'd fire up my RJ and maybe take a little spin. Low and behold, after starting it, I discovered that there is a massive amount of fuel spewing out from behind the carbs somewhere. I mean massive. It's too late to dig deeply into it, but I have discovered the following. It spews far less fuel when on the center stand as opposed to the side stand. When the petcock is set on Reserve, it spews a lot more than when just on 'Run'. The petcock is definitely not leaking. It's clearing coming from the back of the carbs somewhere. The bike hadn't been started in about two weeks and it's been pretty cold. The bike lives in a garage, but not a heated garage. Any thoughts? Could some sort of seal or gasket blown back there?

Thanks,

Greg

 

The turbo has a different arrangement with the petcock... something to do with the turbo making it have poor vacuum and so the petcock isn't vacuum operated in the same way.

If I'm correct there then it could be a stuck float... give each one a soft rap with a screwdriver head and see... you might get lucky there.

Does sound like a carb problem - which on a turbo might not be as much fun as the non-turbo - sorry :-/

 

I will try the tap thing. This isn't the Turbo though. It's my regular XJ.

 

Well in that case - you'd have to the petcock fail (so it didn't require vacuum - otherwise it wouldn't flow) and to get it to overflow like that the float would have to stick...

I'd guess the petcock has been buggered for awhile and the floats were behaving properly until it sat that time... meaning I don't think it's heavily gunked, so a soft rap might might stop it making a mess...

 

OK, disregard. I'm a knucklehead. I couldn't let it alone so I went back out and did a little more checking. I took the tank off for a better view and foudn that the fuel line had completely come off. It connects between the two right carbs (when sitting on the bike.) I reconnected it and believe it or not, it runs a lot better and doesn't spew fuel. Come to think of it, I don't know how it was running at all. There must have been just enough fuel falling into the inlet to keep it going. I guess there was more flow when on reserve because the pressure of the fuel in the tank was forcing fuel through the line at a higher rate.

Thanks for the help. You have no idea how relieved I am!

Greg

 

I'd also check to see if the fuel line hasn't ruptured, it runs down behind the carbs, If it's gushing when it's running.
Had my hose pop off my fuel filter and it spewed fuel pretty good. Luckily I was still setting at the house.

EDIT; LOL we posted at the same time. Glad you found it.