fuel in crankcase

[Anonymous]

After riding today I went to put my bike on the centerstand, and dropped it to about a 45 degree angle onto its right side up against a wall. No damage, but after a while the oil level went out of the sight window. Would enough fuel have been able to leave the carbs in the short time it was on its side to do this, and would this have caused it at all.

Could something else have ocurred to do this.

The petcock was already turned off before I dropped it, and my needle valves have been working fine.

[Anonymous]

Check your oil for gas smell. Being tilted that far over would have dropped your floats enough to let gas run through. if that is the case, you also have a problem with the petcock.

[Redman]

I would think that if petcock did effectivly shut off gas to carbs, and then with bike tipped and if the floats opened the valves, and if some or all of the gas that was already in bowls did run into cyclinders and then wash down into crankcase, the amount of gas in the bowls would not be enough volumn to raise the level in the crankcase that much, or not much noticable amount anyway. So I agree with Gary's suggestion that maybe the petcock is not effectivly shutting off. If pectcok leaking when it should be off, with bike tipped causing floats to open, then you have enough supply of gas to raise level in crankcase.

With out getting into a discussion of manaul verses vacuum operated petcocks. . . . On my bike, it is easy to pull the gas line to carbs off of the petcock, just a rubber line with a wire clip type clamp. Making it easy to see if gas runs out of petcock only when it should, and not when it should not. So you can try that and let us know.

If petcock does leak when it should be off, you will want to replace/fix that before you also happen to get a leaky float valve or a stuck float, then you will have same problem all the time without tipping over bike.

Not related directly to your question, but . . . I assume you did not intend for the bike to tipp over against the wall when putting it on the centerstand . . . . The "tips and tricks" section of this forum has a good description of getting bike on centerstand.

[Anonymous]

Add one more vote to the "bad petcock" diagnosis. Oddly enough, it happened to me last month, sort of. I accidentally put the petcock to Prime instead of Run, and let it sit for a week. A lot of gas got into the cylinders, and I had to not only change the oil but the filter too. Glad I didn't just jump on it and start it up like I normally do!