Help in diagnosis with leak

[Mark Walsh]

Hey all ,83 GS1100E ...starts on half choke when overnight cold, idles steadily at ~1000 RPM, goes through the gears fine seems to have a "flat spot" in or around 3-4500RPM Pretty sure that I need to rebuild my carbs but no cylinder is running too lean so I figure it could wait. Now after replacing the air filter the other day ( along with multiple other tasks--630 chain conversion,oil and filter change ) I'm getting gas leaking out of the airbox drain tube. Now I've searched this ever informative forum and can deduce one of two things...A) I need to rebuild the carbs...apparently I've disloged some crud that is sticking some sort of needle or mixture screw open or B) the damn OEM petcock. Now I've checked the oil ( by the wooden-skewer-dip-in-sump-test ) and have only the lovely scent of fresh warm oil...so I don't think that the vacuum hose is leaking gas into the airbox ( or crankcase )...BUT the other day, when I had run out of gas ( was on my way to a gas station ) tried to switch to reserve and couldn't even turn the damn thing....I figured there must be some trick to it ( my first GS..ahhem...motorcycle )..but I ruled that out thinking how technical can a petcock be and decided that I will replace it this winter with the Pingel(sp?) type. Its not oozing a whole lot of gas and only seems to pour out when I'm off throttle downshifting ( after blips ) and sitting at a stop...a few drips....gone. Where does this weigh in on the side of needing a carb cleaning asap?

[Baatfam]

I had to use pliers to turn the one on my 1100E....

If you open it up, you'll see it's a simple thing. I cleaned it up, but it was just worn out and never moved smoothly.

A Pingal will set you back about $100....
You can get a replacement stock one for less than $50....

Still...I went with the Pingal because I like simple....

Later,

[chef1366]

I recommend the Pingle also.
Pass more Gas

[trippivot]

K&L fuel tap rebuild to get the vacuum tap operating and controlling fuel to start with.
next open the carbs and check under the float needle seats for debris.

a nice set of float needles will complete the fuel control situation. K&L makes nice kits that work just fine. 1 kit per carb when ordering

don't forget to put a filter and new clear hose on after so you can inspect fuel flow at all times

set float heights to spec. do not bend the float tang to stop a leak. believe me that is WRONG!!