1979 GS1000 carbs- questions on re-building???

[Anonymous]

Hello, I picked up a 79 GS1000 to make a winter project out of. It was pretty much complete, a bit rough, but no basket case by any means. I have it all painted and put back together, new tires, seat cover and it turned out pretty nice. I tore down the carbs and cleaned them, set the floats as instructed in the manual and put everything back together. It runs great, but I get a little gas leaking from the right side ( sitting on the bike ) overflow tube. It is the only one to leak, and it does run great as it is. I was wondering what may be causing this? Do I not have the floats set up correctly, or do I have another problem? If the float needle and seat are worn, could this cause gas to keep seeping into the bowl? I know this is probably a stupid question, but can I just cap off the overflow tube? I know a lot of carbs don't even have an overflow, so is this OK to do? I always turn of the gas flow when I turn off the bike, but I'm sure one day I'll forget to and was wondering if this gas will then leak out the back of the carb? I know I'm asking a lot of different questions, but any input at all would help. I'm not a novice, but I'm no mechanic by any means. I had a 78 GS750 do the same thing, same carb, but it seemed to stop on its own after it was run for a while, or maybe it was just that it was in the summer and it evaporated as fast as it leaked??? Thanks for any and all replies.

[SqDancerLynn1]

First if you have the stock petcock there is no off position, the on/off function is controlled by the engine vacuum operation of the petcock. it should be left it the on position lever pointing down Do not plug the overflow (nipple on the bottom of the float bowl) if it is leaking from there the float may be set to high or the needle may be leaking

[gremlin]

get some saw horses set your gas tank on them. put a drip pan under the petcock in the on setting it should not leak. let it set over night to see if temp changes make it leak.

take your float bole off and remove float. watch out for the needle it will fall out. take carb cleaner and a pipe cleaner spray and swab the needle seat. be carefull you dont want to scrach/nick the seat. check and clean the needle.
reasmble and check float hight. push float up and down a few times to check and see if it hangs up. it takes practice so if you do this 10 to 100 times its ok. sometimes there will be a bur or trash you missed. it does not take much for a float to hang up. i had one on the left hand side that drove me nuts. every now and then it would drible when i put it on the side stand. it ended up to be a ruff scratch neer the pivot.

i hope this helps and you can read it its way past my bed time.

PS when working on gas tanks and carbs in the winter time. watch your heator. you dont want to put your bike in orbit its hard on roofs.

[Anonymous]

Hey, Thanks for the help. I'm going to tear down the carbs again and install new kits in each carb. Each kit comes with new gaskets, jets, needle valves and new needle seat. I think all of the floats are ok. With a new float needle and seat in each carb, all should be fine. Thanks again for both replies.

[KEITH KRAUSE]

Don't forget, when you replace the float needle valves you must re-check the float height. Make sure each float is even on both ends. Sometimes they are tweaked. Set the float heights to .95" with the bowl gasket removed.