Fuel overflow question

[Guest]

Well the bike has been sitting for a while and ive been doing my usual lurking and reading.

So the other day i decided to fire up the gs and let her run a bit, since shes been sitting for almost a month(yuck). Ticked over after a minute(longer then normal, figured cause its 17F out its going to start hard anyways...), CHOKE up, ran nice around 3K. Turned choke OFF and i smelled raw fuel and saw a puddle below the bike.

Now i never remember seeing this thing spit gas like this before, is this normal? have i just not paid attention to this all summer?

I have rebuilt the carbs as to this resource http://www.thegsresources.com/files/vm_carb_rebuild.pdf and everything is A-OK, ran like a top all summer. only thing i changed was lose the air box and switch to some home-made v-stacks(until i can afford pods, i actually used the air box-carb boots, looks badass) 100 mains, and needles raised at highest position.

Is this a normal operation? or am i going to have to f with the carbs some more?

[rangerdanger]

ahhh crap. can someone move this to carb/fuel? i had the wrong section open in my browser. stupid.

[Ranger]

Stuck floats or improperly adjusted. Did you measure them?

Whats with the RANGER portion of your name?

[rangerdanger]

My beloved truck. haha. 1998 Ford Ranger XLT

*yes float height is correct

[Ranger]

Ah.
Did you measure your float height? If yes>
Fill a remote tank with fuel and if gas flows out of your carbs tap them on the bottom with a heavy screw driver handle to see if the floats are stuck.

When did you rebuild the carbs?

[cowboyup3371]

Can you please put the model of your bike in your signature? It helps people help you better.

If you are going to change to pods then yes, you'll need to f with the carbs ALOT more to find the right settings. But in the meantime, I'd check your petcock as well as your float settings again.

[Ranger]

Can you please put the model of your bike in your signature? It helps people help you better.

If you are going to change to pods then yes, you'll need to f with the carbs ALOT more to find the right settings. But in the meantime, I'd check your petcock as well as your float settings again.

I'm guessing its not his petcock leaking since he had no fuel around the bike prior to starting it unless fuel continues to spill out after the bikes been shut off for a while? Thats why I threw the remote tank idea out there.

[cowboyup3371]

I'm guessing its not his petcock leaking since he had no fuel around the bike prior to starting it unless fuel continues to spill out after the bikes been shut off for a while? Thats why I threw the remote tank idea out there.

That might be so but this comment is what caught my eye:

So the other day i decided to fire up the gs and let her run a bit, since shes been sitting for almost a month(yuck). Ticked over after a minute(longer then normal, figured cause its 17F out its going to start hard anyways...), CHOKE up, ran nice around 3K. Turned choke OFF and i smelled raw fuel and saw a puddle below the bike.

Now i never remember seeing this thing spit gas like this before, is this normal? have i just not paid attention to this all summer?

I'm thinking maybe the petcock was left on prime and forgotten about when he turned the bike off or the oring seal around the petcock could have gone bad. But you are probably right too and there's a float issue. Either way, the remote tank will help rule out or pinpoint the problem area.

[Ranger]

Now that I think about it I had a similar problem when I forgot to turn my inline fuel valve off before I switched back to a petcock.

Raised needle to highest position... you raised the clip or lowered the clip to raise it? Where is the fuel coming from? It MAY also be fuel leaking out of the area the needle drops into due to excess fuel being drawn with the choke on if you raised the needle.

Remove the boot so you can see into carb # 1 and see the needle and have the bike on the side stand. Repeat what you did when it first began to leak fuel, if it drips out the intake side of the carb then your needle setting is whats causing it and you need to adjust the float height. If its coming from the overflow ports from the carb then you need to tap the bowl with a screw driver and if it still is flowing out then adjust the float height accordingly.

[Steve]

OK, we still don't know what bike you are talking about.

The only clue we have is that you "raised the needles", which means you might have a '79 or older (something) with VM carbs.

.

[rangerdanger]

Im going to answer a bunch of questions at once.

-1979 GS550L (un-L'd) with VM22ss
-I do not have a PRI setting on my petcock.
-It will spill fuel out of the overflows while running.
-rebuilt carbs june/july. first thing done to the bike after purchase. with roughly 3K miles put on since then.
-fuel spills from overflows not out of carb throats.
-Needles raised so that clips are on lowest position on needle. bottom rung so to speak.

my bad, i guess all that is pretty important stuff huh? hah.

[Ranger]

I'm assuming if you dont have prime this is a manual petcock... but if so fuel would flow out of the overflows without it running? I'm so confused. Sounds like a float problem for sure. Did you store the bike with fuel sitting in the bowls?

[cowboyup3371]

Hey RangerDanger, go up to your User CP and edit your signature to include your bike. This way we don't always have to ask what you have and you don't have to remember to tell us what you are talking about.

Thanks.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Overflowing Carbs

The above deals more with CV carbs but much of the information is applicable.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff