Catastrophe? Either way it's not good...

[Kapoor]

So after getting really busy and not having the time to continue to play on my bike, I noticed after work that there was a small puddle of something under my bike. Further inspection I found out that it was gas, and during my inspection I straightened out the wheel and a tsunami of fuel poured from the tank... the one i just filled with a few gallons. Well I figured this was because of the pressure in the tank in my 110 degree garage. so i took no notice and figured no harm just wasting a quart or so of fuel. Well the next morning another tsunami when i rocked the bike back and forth! Well I figured a float must be stuck and i'll just let the gas do what it wants for the next few days till i can address it. So I'm packed up and get my bike to my house in Missoula and get ready for college.

Then yesterday i notice there's a leak coming from my drain plug! 'Weird" I thought and decided to drain the oil and what was left of the tank the next day (well the gas tank was empty). I also had to patch a small leak on the started/flywheel cover while I had the oil drained. Anyways I undo the plug and what looks like brown water pours from my bike!! Ack! This stuff was thinner than water, and reminded me of weed-whacker mixed gas, and there had to be at least 6 quarts of it. Just think if I tried to ride it like that or turn it over; it probably would have Exploded!! scary thought...

--So I'm currently waiting for the JB weld to set on my cover, my bike is totally drained of the gaseous oil, and is all sealed up to avoid any additional water vapor. So my question is about Rusting on the inside of my engine! Is it gonna happen? Does this mean a ring is totally gone, or is this something typical of a stuck float that the owner doesn't attend to immediately while it drowns the engine?

Also currently my bike doesn't have a center stand. Would this cause the leaking and such? The previous owner must have done something horrible because the brackets are all busted up so i'll need to re-weld and install another center stand eventually.

Thanks again for all your ideas. I'm planning on inspecting the carbs tomorrow after classes. Just got too tired tonight.

[BassCliff]

Hi,

A few thoughts:

Overflowing Carbs


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[ronin1166]

Take a whiff of the nasty drained oil.

If it smells like gasoline, then BassCliff has nailed it.

Do NOT attempt to start the bike until you have corrected any mass fuel leakage entering the crankcase!

Not because of explosion hazard, but to avoid hydro-locking the engine and bending connecting rods!
Do a Google search on "hydro-lock", "hydrolock", "hydraulic lock", etc.

.

[tom203]

Make sure you go to Basscliff's site and review info on overflowing carbs.
Does this bike have fuel gauge? Was the rebuilt engine after you bought it, or from previous owner?
Also make sure you safely dispose or contain the drained/ spilled gas- if the garage temp gets that hot again today, the gas will evaporate into a potential fire hazard.

[raistian77]

Check your petcock, remove sparkplugs to be sure a cylinder is not full of gas.

Now, this is my personal practice but when fixing cars with blown head gaskets I would have the drain plug out durning the whole repair than put it back in when done fill with cheap oil run just long enough to get warm than drain and fill with good oil. Might be a good idea to do when you are done with the repairs.

[scubabiker]

do you do a lot of very short journeys? if you do, it will cause a lot of condensation to build up in the rocker covers and could make the oil watery, it uually goes white if its mixed with water tho

[Kapoor]

Well I pulled the carbs and took a look under the float bowls. Didn't see any debris anywhere, which is good and means my fuel filter is working well! Also nothing was stuck. However this isn't to say there weren't any problems. First off my floats were way off, so I adjusted each one to spec, and second the main jet rubber washers that I had replaced the brass ones with were destroyed. So I reinstalled the original brass (or maybe they're copper?) washers, which looked much more uniform.

After reassembly i filled her up with the correct amount of 10w-40 as prescribed from the oil cap, and took her for a spin. So I don't know if it's still flooding but I'm keeping an eye on it now, and if it does I can assume it's probably the old petcock.

Also i got kind of a new problem. So when riding it I would throttle through first and second to get up to speed, and then I'd throw in the clutch, completely let off the throttle and coast. But the engine instead of dropping RPMs it just stay the same. The only way i found to drop the rpms to idle again is it ease half way off the clutch and apply the breaks for a second to essentially bog down the engine. Then when I pull the clutch all of the way again it remains at idle. Does this sound like a sticking throttle cable or something sticking in the carbs not allowing it to return to idle by itself?

[Justonv]

Well, as for the flooding thing, make sure you are turning your petcock to the off position if it's an on off reserve petcock, if you have a prime position, make sure you aren't leaving it there.

As for the bike not idling back down, maybe slides sticking?

[LarryA_Texas]

Also i got kind of a new problem. So when riding it I would throttle through first and second to get up to speed, and then I'd throw in the clutch, completely let off the throttle and coast. But the engine instead of dropping RPMs it just stay the same. The only way i found to drop the rpms to idle again is it ease half way off the clutch and apply the breaks for a second to essentially bog down the engine. Then when I pull the clutch all of the way again it remains at idle. Does this sound like a sticking throttle cable or something sticking in the carbs not allowing it to return to idle by itself?

Check for a bad petcock. Pull the vacuum line off of the #2 carb and see if fuel is leaking down that line from the petcock into the #2. (you can suck on the line and see if you taste gasoline, or find another more complicated way to put vacuum on it)

If you have a bad diaphragm in the petcock it could be allowing fuel to run down that line into the #2 cyl and from there down into the crankcase. That can also cause the idle problem you describe.

[Kapoor]

Well, as for the flooding thing, make sure you are turning your petcock to the off position if it's an on off reserve petcock, if you have a prime position, make sure you aren't leaving it there.

As for the bike not idling back down, maybe slides sticking?

Well i wish my bike had an on-off-rev petcock but instead it has a vacuum style petcock that is probably the original.

So I left the bike propped up on some wood to help center it out. Turns out 3 hours later there's a puddle of fuel below the bike again. So I think the problem is in the petcock. I'm gonna remove it tomorrow, and maybe attempt to take it apart and see if anything is stuck inside of it or if the diaphragm is broken.

I've been thinking of installing an on-off switch in the fuel line. Has anyone done this with this style petcock or is it just more beneficial to buy a new oem petcock?

P.S. After discovering the leak I clamped off the fuel line and ran the bike for a few seconds to remove any fuel just sitting in the cylinders (Although while trying start the bike the starter sounded like it was seizing up periodically while trying to start it. Probably time to buy a new one of those also)

[Dave8338]

Well i wish my bike had an on-off-rev petcock but instead it has a vacuum style petcock that is probably the original.

So I left the bike propped up on some wood to help center it out. Turns out 3 hours later there's a puddle of fuel below the bike again. So I think the problem is in the petcock. I'm gonna remove it tomorrow, and maybe attempt to take it apart and see if anything is stuck inside of it or if the diaphragm is broken.

I've been thinking of installing an on-off switch in the fuel line. Has anyone done this with this style petcock or is it just more beneficial to buy a new oem petcock?

P.S. After discovering the leak I clamped off the fuel line and ran the bike for a few seconds to remove any fuel just sitting in the cylinders (Although while trying start the bike the starter sounded like it was seizing up periodically while trying to start it. Probably time to buy a new one of those also)

If it is the original petcock, it DOES have ON, PRI, and RES.
GREAT desing and well worth the investment or someday, when you least expect it, someone will come up to you and say smile, you've just trashed an engine as a result of forgetting the Pingle on.

Usually happens when your 50 miles away from home...

[Kapoor]

For my year and model of bike I believe the OEM petcock is a vacuum style with a PRI and ON position with no off and no res. Which is the one that's on there. Also no it isn't set to PRI it's set to ON. So I took off the tank and removed the petcock because I wanted to not only see what it looked like on the inside, but i also wanted to see if the diaphragm was full of holes. Turns out there was a bunch of junk in there, so after a bit of sanding and scrapping I got to function properly again!

I currently have 2 problems (well at least currently) that I need some help solving however I think I'm gonna move them into a different thread related to my throttle problem. Thanks again for helping me track the leaking problem down!

[BassCliff]

Hi,

Oh the joys of the dreaded 1980 vacuum petcock; No reserve and the only way to set it on Prime is to use a screwdriver. I'm so glad the 1980 GS850GT did not get that petcock.

Glad you were able to clean it up and get it working right.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff