leaking fuel from a wierd spot

[Guest]

my bike is leaking fuel from what I thought was the oil breath valve. its the tube from the top of the engine. that goes the the air box. any ideas. I could use a hand. I have the manual but I cant find anything.

[tatu]

Have you loosened the oil filler cap to see if its full of fuel? if it has that much gas in it best put something under it to catch it all in case it is. Best you get to the bottom of this before you try to start it.

[Big T]

Your motor is likely full of gas from a leaky fuel tap

Drain your oil immediately

[kymasabe]

I'm with Big T on this one. My GS450 did same thing, fuel drained out of the tank, right into the crankcase. I had fuel dripping out of the crankcase vent at the top of the motor when I started the motor. I immediately shut ot down, did an oil change, replaced the petcock with a Pingel non-vacuum operated petcock and am in the middle of rebuilding the carbs.
Good luck.

[kdzomie]

ok so it was fuel in the motor how do I stop that from happening is it a carb problem. do I just need to rebuild the carbs or will it be more difficult.

[salty_monk]

The petcock must be leaking & the float valves are too...

In theory either one being sealed should not allow this to happen (but in practice the float valves can be overcome by the leaking petcock even if they are ok).

You definitely need to replace your petcock (rebuilding doesn't usually work). This is assuming you don't have it permanently on "prime" of course.... (that is direct feed & overrides the vacuum shut off).

Would help to know what bike you have... some petcocks have a screw next to the tap for prime & if it's loose that could cause the same thing (that's how you prime it on that model).

Have you cleaned your carbs & replaced all the O rings? Pretty much a necessity if it hasn't been done recently.

[kdzomie]

i have a 1982 gs400. I don't see anything on the petcock that says prime just off one and res. I just bought the bike so nothing has been done to the carbs or petcock yet. it is good to know that it is not some major pain problem. ill get some new parts clean the carbs and keep you guys posted on whats going on.

[kdzomie]

I was wrong the petcock has res on the left side on at the bottom and pri on the right side. it only seems to leak when it is running not a drop of fuel any were and I let the drain plug stay out all night. this bike also has pod filters and the petcock is not connected to the vacuum I think. it has a loose hose coming off of it going no wear.