Priming CV Carbs (Spring Is Here)

[twr1776]

How long does it take to fill the bowls? I drain the bowls for the winter and in the spring prime them before starting. I tend to overfill them and get fuel dripping off of the bowls until the carbs clear themselves. I change fluilds anyway but hate to drip the fuel on the motor. Any suggestions? Thanks

[denydog]

Sounds like a mess. I just turn the petcock to prime, wait about 20 seconds and start her up. I guess my float bowls don't leak because the needle valves shut off fuel flow when they're full. I can leave it on prime as long as I want.

Maybe I'm not understanding the question?

[khardrunner14]

Sounds like you have a problem with the float bowls or needle valves. You shouldn't have fuel dripping out of the carbs anywhere.

[Dave8338]

The fact that you have a leak, is a symptom of the problem. I'd pull the bowls off and have a look at the floats, needle valves and the seats. As Denny said, there should be no leaking anywhere if things are working correctly.

[twr1776]

Sounds like I am due to replace some parts. I have no other carb issues but I am still running the original intake boots and carb innards so when I change the boots out I will go ahead and take care of this along with all of the other 25 year old seals etc. I was under the impression that if you left the carbs on prime you could have fuel overfilling and bypassing the bowls. I do not have any other leaking issues on run or prime. Thanks for the input

[Bud]

I might just be talking out of my butt here, but if the bike sits all winter, with the floats down, maybe it's just a little sticky in the spring. Some gas left at the bottom of the carbs glues the floats down while you prime.

You said that you don't have any other leaking issues on rum or prime. Does that mean that after the first leak, if you went out to put it on prime right now, it wouldn't leak? If so, the bike running shook the floats loose and now thier OK. I would still clean them (you now have little bits of congealed fuel floating around in there) if you can. Next time, use sta-bil and you might want to take the bowels off to drain them, or wait a shorter amout of time... 10 sec or so, start it, shut it off. something like that.

[twr1776]

I will try the prime thing tonight. I do use the sta-bil on the fuel and used to leave the carbs full over the winter but had a couple of years in a row when I had to clean them in the spring even with the sta-bil and what should have been quality gas. I have drained the last couple of years and had no cleaning issues in the spring. Just the overfilling on my part. I did not think about the floats sticking to the bowls but also seems very possible. I either underprime or overprime it seems every spring. Thanks