she peed gas all over my foot

ok so interestingly enough despite having set the floats correctly and having gone 1600miles with no incident of flooding. as i pulled into work today before i even shut off the motor is was practically pumping fuel out the vent tubes on to my boot. so i took off like a bat outta _ and ran it out going around the block one more time. park it .. no sign of flooding... waited 10 min, nothing - fired right back up again no problem.... 1 hr later i went to start it and i had a full cyl of fuel..... 3 min later i got it running ...
drove to the nearest auto parts stor and bought a briggs and stratton lawnmower fuel swith which has a magic "OFF" position for $4.10 and grabbed my knife and installed it on the spot.

this is the third time since i have owned the bike where for no reason it will start to flood and i am willing to bet a cold 6-pack that if i open it up tonight i will find all the floats sitting where i left them at 16.5mm

i am curious if anyone else has ever seen this

 

16.5mm... does not matter.

The float heights are not important - the FUEL LEVEL is.

You need to do the 'clear tube' method to measure the fuel levels.

The measurement in the bowl is only a starting point. Over time the floats get bent by PO's, warped, sag due to age, etc. So that measurement is null.

Get them set by the tube.

Also - have to 'polished' the inside of the hole the needle valve sits in? How did the tips of your needle valves look? (the rubber tip)

You can polish the inside of the needle valve bore with a rolled up piece of wet-o-dry paper lubed with WD40 then rinse with carb cleaner.

 

needle bore is new as well as the float needle.

 

I bet you another cold 6-er that you have a small screen type inline filter, or none at all.

Yes, still happens to me on my 750 that I've put 2,000 miles on.
I'm going to work on some kind of sediment chamber and larger paper filter. Hey, is rust magnetic?

 

actually i have had this problem with 3 different paper filters 1 fuel screen and definatley without filtration as well. it boggles the mind for a log term fix.

 

Yes, generally rust is magnetic. That's why guys with rusty tanks stick magnets on their fuel filters, because the rust sediment will get through the filter.

 

Floats can only cause what's IN the float bowl to go where it isn't supposed to; the other half of the equation is a petcock that doesn't shut off. (Which can also be caused by crud in its finicky parts.)

 

Can someone explain to me how a petcock not shutting off can cause fuel overflows?

From what I understand, the needle valve shuts off the flow to the bowl. So, if the bike isn't running, and the gas isn't going anywhere... how does the petcock letting fuel through, overflow? I would tend to think the closed valves would stop it?

Ohhhh wait a minute, brain fart. The needle valve isn't where the gas comes in, right? Comes in through the mesh filter?

God, my brain is in pain right now... need to see a diagram or something!

Busy day at work, me brain ain't workin no mo!

 

uhh fitz are you agreeing with my shut off valve? cause my petcock seems to be operating normally from what i am told anyways. uhhh my petcock doesnt have an off position from what i hear and have seen on the xj's most diddnt as well as the virago's

however supposing that you are fishing for operational questions about the petcock when disconnected from the carbs / engine it will trickle in "ON" or "RES"
and has a steady flow in "PRI" now that having been said whenits installed and connected to vacuum i get really good flow in ON, RES but not as much in PRI.

Maybe my question should be should it flow in the on position with the engine off .... better yet should it over flow at least 2-3 carbs at idle every 1600 miles ?



Please try to remember through this that it doesnt happen every day or even once a week ... its been 1672.8 miles since it did it last

 

Going to risk it all and quote my self here

"before i even shut off the motor it was practically pumping fuel out the vent tubes on to my boot"

i shouldnt have said practically it was a pumping action at that point

 

An odd chance the float hinge is hanging up?
Rick Co suggests polishing the pin and the bore it lives in.

A carb will only flood IF both a petcock isn't shutting off completely and one needle-seat is leaky, or the seat gasket too.

And fine sediment crud will occasionally lodge in the needle-seat.

 

OK so if I am right - the needle closes the flow, and the FLOW comes OUT from where the small mesh screen is, correct?

Time - they will flood if the floats are set to allow too much fuel in as well, correct?

 

happened to me once last year, going to work it was missing on 1 cylinder
when i got there i pulled the fuel line off the tank and let it run out of gas
after work hooked the fuel line up and it worked fine, once home i used the bowl drain screws to drain all the bowls, caught the gas on a paper towel and saw a few micro sized particles
never happened again
once something gets in the needle valve seat the floats can't go down to let it out 'cause the bowl is filling up, it stays trapped there, run it outa gas and let the float fall and the gas will rinse it out thats why you need those hex head drain screws

 

Yes, but then he wouldn't put 1,600 miles on it with the floats set too high.

After thinking about this, it peeing straight out like that, it wasn't a bit of crud, the float stuck open, engine running--petcock open as well.

It could be the float drop-down setting too low ??

 

If your petcock is working properly you should only have fuel flow to the carbs with engine running in the "on" or 'Res" Position. If your running in "Prime" you will have fuel flow all the time and that my friend will fill your engine with gas in no time if you have a stuck float.

1st Never leave your fuel selector in Prime
2nd Test your petcock and make sure the fuel shuts off when engine not running.
3rd If your petcock leaks Drain the tank and park the bike untill you get it fixed. Anything could happen with fuel leaking from these bikes. One fellow just wrote in on how he managed to rip his tank off and throw it away from his bike before it burned his bike to the ground. It still damaged the garage and caused the fire dept to show up. Thank God he didn't get burned himself.

As far as carbs go. Any little piece of microscopic junk can screw up a needle and seat in your carbs. Clean your tank and put a good quality filter inline to minimize that from happening.

MN

 

i just rebuilt the petcock with all new parts 2 months ago, the rebuild fixed the other issues i had with seals leaking. i repleaced everything except the housing.

my kit included
Diaphram
diaphram spring
inner o ring
position switch o-ring
tank seal
4 hole fuel position seal
position switch retainer / tensioner


i am almost wondering if i should relace the floats ..... wish i knew where i could get some brass ones cheap. the reason i say this is i recall having the same issue using the same gas station one time... my suspicion is somthing in the fuel causing it

btw i drained the bowls last night into a coffee filter i diddnt see any rust or particulates in the fuel - i pulled the in-line filter and reverse flushed it to se if i could see anything come out... not much of anything did.