Gasoline in airbox?

[Weston666]

Hello, I was wondering if anyony knew why I have gasoline going into my airbox, I have already cleaned it out twice but every night it gets reflooded, any help is apprecitated. 1980 gs550l

[tone]

a couple of things to check ...........

fuel tap working as it should ?
carb foats set correctly ?

also check your oil level if its gone up you also have fuel in the crankcases smell it as well & if in doubt check/repair the above then replace oil * filter

hope it helps tone

[spyug]

Sorry to hear of you gas problem. As you know, you need to sort this out quickly as it can be quite dangerous.....i.e. gas vapour + combustion source = boom

It is likely one of two things a) bad or leaking petcock b) blocked or worn float valve in one or more carb.

Check the petcock first. With the lever in the run position pull off the hose ( and direct it over a jar or can) to the carb a small amount of gas will drip out then stop. If it keeps running the petcock seals need replacing.

If that's not it then it will be a carb float valve sticking and not seating or worn. If the carbs have not been cleaned and or rebuilt in a while this might be the time. You can get float valves in rebuilt kits.

You didn't say but if the carbs had been recently rebuilt then the float height might not have been set right and this is causing the problem. Either way, you need to get into the carbs to sort this.

Lots of good information for redoing carbs in the tutorial so read it over if you haven't already.

Hope this points you in the right direction.

Good luck.
Cheers,
Spyug.

[jbs80106]

side stand vs center stand.

This happened to me once, and someone suggested that when parked on center stand, because the bike leans to the side, if the float is set high it can leak, I almost alway park on center stand and haven't had a problem. Could be a coinkidink.....

[doctorgonzo]

Stuck float + stock airbox = doing an impression of ghost rider and replacing a wiring harness (as well as carb rebuild)
Believe me, I know from experience.

[Weston666]

it seems to be leaking gas from the air breather tube?

[Dave8338]

it seems to be leaking gas from the air breather tube?

Are you talking about the crank-case breather? The vacuum line for the petcock?

[Kcwiro]

Dejavu

I think he maybe refering to the tubes that either are the breathers for the carbs that usually route under teh seat... or he means the hose the airbox drains to ....

[Nessism]

Gas in the airbox is caused by overflowing floatbowl(s), or a petcock that is dumping gas down the vacuum line and into the #2 carb vacuum line port.

Floatbowls overflow when the float needle is not sealing properly. Even with the petcock set to the prime position (flowing all the time), the float needles should seal well enough to keep this issue in check. That said, it’s always best if the petcock is shutting off the gas flow properly when the engine is turned off – there is no benefit from putting the float needles under stress all the time with fuel pressure.

The most common problem with float needles that are not sealing is contamination – rust from the tank, or varnish from old gas. Sounds like a good time to pull the carbs and go though them to bring them up to date.

[bwringer]

I've seen this happen when crud from an ancient petcock made its way into the freshly cleaned carbs and propped open the float needles.

A new petcock and a quick cleaning of the float needles and seats, and everything was copacetic.

I've also seen this happen when some unseen jellified crudniks remained inside the float needle seats following an otherwise thorough cleaning. A bit of time with a Q-tip and carb cleaner sorted that one pretty quickly.