Float sticking intermittently...

[Anonymous]

Hi Guys, great site. I would be lost without it.

1979 GS750E
aftermarket exhaust (not labeled, dunno what it is.)
K&N pod filters
125jets

I just got this machine cheap and it runs great. I had a petcock prob but I fixed that right off. I gapped and timed the points and it's running very smooth with perhaps just a lil bit of a miss. Nothing disturbing though. The one question I have for you gents is this. After I rode to work the other day and turned off my ride I saw gas coming from the #2 float drain. I thought great(sarcasm). My float is sticking. I reached to shut off the fuel at the petcock and before I could do that it stopped. I thought great (no sarcasm) the float needle seated. Must've fixed itself, hmmmph? Then the flow started again. I reached for the petcock again. It stopped. weird

Has anyone seen this before? I've almost come to the conclusion I need to take this ride to church and bring out the excorcist or the float it playing with my mind or maybe both? Perhaps I've inhaled too many gas fumes?!

I've had these carbs apart about three times now and everything has been dipped, blown, inspected and checked each time. This particular carb is running just a shade lean and I believe that I have that lil problem taken care of. I'm just a lil concerned that I could be getting better gas mileage as this lil trickster could be dumping fuel while I'm underway. Not too mention, I don't like having my ankle smelling like gas.

These are great bikes. My wife and kids love it. I love it. It's great to be back on the road on two wheels again and I wanna keep it that way.

Thanks in advance for all advice guys.

[Gary Lich]

I have seen it before....I had an 850 with a float that would stick intermittently. It would sometimes resolve itself otherwise a little tap tap with a screw driver handle would take care of it. Only did it about 3 times a year and ran fine otherwise so I never bothered to tear into it. I think if it was dumping fuel when you were underway it would be flooding out and you would notice it was not running right.

[SqDancerLynn1]

You could have the float set too high, tilt on side stand causing small over flow. Other wise I would change the needle/seat assembly

[Keith Winter]

Boy do I know THIS problem!!
My 78 1000 had this problem and I can tell you positively that when rideing, if you have the overflow hoses going down infront of the swingarm where it seems everybody has them (me too for a while), you will not notice gas comeing out while rideing the bike. The floats in those carbs can be a real pain to get just right, mine still do "birp" a little gas out once in a while. The problem with them is that if your petcock isn't shuting off perfectly (if it's vacum) a small amount of gas will leak down into the fuel line and eventually will raise the fuel level in the float bowls slightly above the over flow pipe inside the bowl. Try this with a glass of water and you can get the level above the rim of the glass. The gas then "birps" out the overflow. The stock float valves are not like automotive ones and don't do a great job at stopping the slight drip. Also if there is ANY particulate in your gas tank (all tanks have some) it can get by the fuel tap screen and cause the float's to flood intermittently as well. This happend to me in a highway off ramp at twice the posted speed limit. I did not know while rideing that gas was dripping out the overflow untill I was well into the lean on the corner. At this point gas REALLY gushed out and being infront of the back tire on a scorching hot day, well needless to say with zero rear wheel traction it was kind of like flat tracking. I didn't crash, how I don't know, and with my pant's full I rode home, carefully. I now am a firm supporter of inline gas filters, and after yet another carb clean out and longer overflow pipes, two on either side of the swingarm PAST the point of the front of the back tire I have not had a problem since. I bet I'm not the only one that this has happend to either. Just don't take any chances, you really don't want to crash.

[Anonymous]

Thanks guys for the help. I've been trying to figure this one out... It's stumping me. I guess that I'll just have to take the carbs apart one more time and recheck the float on that carb. And I'll try a different inline filter. Perhaps this one (a cheapy) just isn't up to the task of keeping the small stuff out of the float bowls. I may put some long lines on the overflow tubes as my bike didn't have em on there, yet... But I may wait a few days after I recheck the carbs and change the filter. I'm aware that there is a problem but I want to keep an eye on it and having it burp out that fuel right under my nose (well my butt) makes it easy for me to know it's happening.

Thanks again guys!

[Detman101]

Yes, I would also like to say thanks to you all in this thread.
I've been experiencing the intermittent "Rich-running" and I have a feeling that it is because I also used a crap filter that let huge rust sediment from my tank through to my carbs. I will take apart the carbs today and clean them again.
It's my fault really for not buying the filter I needed when the old one was full. But I've got a great one on there now so after I clean the carbs I should be good to go.

Thanks again,
Dm of mD

[Anonymous]

I have a '79 750L and my carbs did the same. I cleaned them (rusty tank) and put in a fuel filter, but I also noticed one of the floats was periodically binding on the housing. I tweeked the float and haven't had the problem again.

[Detman101]

How exactly did you tweak the float? I need to do this to two of my floats right now. 1&2 are a little "off".

I noticed that the little bendable float tang doesn't fully compress the little springpin on the float needle because the square edges of the float tang hit the edges of the float valve seat. you know, the edge of that circular hole that the float needle sits in.

I was thinking of trimming the float tangs with my dremel tool since I have a full set of spare carbs.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/viewtopic.php?t=24305&sid=17f2f5d5ae6d00803a0e74586614bbc7

Thanks for the help.
Dm of mD

[Anonymous]

The actual foam part of the float was making contact to the side of the housing so I just had to bend them inwards a bit to stop it. I didn't change the float setting at all.

[Detman101]

Ah hA!!!! So that's it!!!
Time to recheck my carbs.

THANKS!!!

Dm of mD