81' GS850 Fuel Smell

[newold81]

I recently purchased an 81' GS850, and I believe I may have a problem.
The bike smells like fuel, and occasionally the previous owner would see fuel dripping from underneath the carbs. A very little bit, but drips none the less.
I haven't seen any drips yet myself.
The previous owner had the carbs rebuilt this spring. And had the mechanic ran and rode it for a week. The darn thing wouldn't leak while the mechanic had it.
Is this a common occurrence?
If it starts to drip again, where should I begin to look?
I should note, although I've wrenched on cars, I've never had the pleasure of wrenching motorcycles.
Thank you for your advice.
Tim

[Dogma]

See if you can force it to leak. Set it to prime for a few minutes and see what happens.

A common problem is a petcock valve failure that will cause #2 carb to overflow, sometimes into the cylinder, then filling the crankcase. I'd check to see if my oil smelled like gas, just to be safe on that front.

[brewmister]

The leaks could be coming from the float bowl gaskets ,maybe float bowl screws needs to be tightened,drain bowl screws need to be tightened or drain bowl gaskets may need to be replaced .

[old_skool]

The leaks could be coming from the float bowl gaskets ,maybe float bowl screws needs to be tightened,drain bowl screws need to be tightened or drain bowl gaskets may need to be replaced .

And unless you clean or rebuild these carbs yourself, your always under the assumption somebody else did them right, more times than not, it's usually the case, not properly dipped or disassembled. A lot of shortcut carb cleaning goes on.

[BassCliff]

Greetings and Salutations!!

Hi Mr. newold81,

Start here:

Overflowing Carbs

From there proceed through the maintenance lists in your "mega-welcome". Know that if you skip any steps or take any shortcuts you may be leaving you and your bike vulnerable to catastrophic failure.

Let me dump a TON of information on you and share some GS lovin'.

I just stopped by to welcome you to the forum in my own, special way.

If there's anything you'd like to know about the Suzuki GS model bikes, and most others actually, you've come to the right place. There's a lot of knowledge and experience here in the community. Come on in and let me say "HOoooowwwDY!"....

Here is your very own magical, mystical, mythical, mind-expanding "mega-welcome". Please take notice of the "Top 10 Common Issues", "Top 15 Tips For GS Happiness", the Carb Cleanup Series, and the Stator Papers. All of these tasks must be addressed in order to have a safe, reliable machine. This is what NOT to do: Top 10 Newbie Mistakes. Now let me roll out the welcome mat for you...



Please click here for your mega-welcome, chock full of tips, suggestions, links to vendors, and other information. Then feel free to visit my little BikeCliff website where I've been collecting the wisdom of this generous community. Don't forget, we like pictures! Not you, your bike!

Thanks for joining us. Keep us informed.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[newold81]

Dang BassCliff, talk about a wealth of GS information!!!

I sure am glad I found this website in my Google search!

Thanks for the help folks!