bike has sight smell of petrol

[andy194bikes]

hi guys , thxs for the help from my last post, got a new problem now i think. bike is a 1993 model (uk) and it runs just fine,no starting problems ,no juttering, everthing is just grate. in the last few days ,when i lift up the bike covers, there is a faint smell of petrol from the left hand side (as u sit on the bike)stripped bike down, ie remove the faring and checked all the pipes. petcock is not leaking, no pipes leaking, carbs not leaking.there was just a boot from the air filter not seated propely on the carb . should there be a slight smell?. worse thing on a bike is a fuel leak. anyone got any ideas??

[hardlydangerous]

Mine was slowly leaking around the fuel sending unit under the tank and soaking the foam dampening matt. That was a hard one to find until i took the tank off. It never actually dripped anywhere. I also had a slight leak around the petcock o ring on the valave handle.

[tigerkatau]

i the same problem as hardlydangerous , no outward signs until you pull the tank.

[quik89Kat]

gas tank vent tube?

[Dexter]

I had/have the slow petcock drip. I kept smelling fuel and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. There was some staining below the petcock on the bodywork, but I figured it was from the fuel line leak the bike had when I bought it. One day, I put a white paper towel under the petcock and let it run for 10 minutes or so. I got a drip!

[md86]

I LIKE the smell of gas

[DreKat]

just dont smoke near it or you could keep it parked outside!

[andy194bikes]

thxs to hardlydangerous and tigerkatu,they hit it on the nail. pulled the tank today noticed fuel on bottom of fuel sender unit,coming ,i think, from the fuel pipe stub on the tank. put a circlip on the pipe that goes over the stub from the tank and hope this cured it, will have to check tomorrow, thxs for all the help guys,will let u know if it solved it.

[hardlydangerous]

hopefully you don't have to go through what I did

With mine one of the spot welds that holds the plate the sending unit attaches to broke/cracked so no matter what I did it would leak.
I tried new gaskets, even a home made one out of an old tire tube, different sealants etc.
Finally I talked to gas tank repair guy on the phone and he said it was likely a spot weld cracked and the tank would have stripped and the plate ground off and re-welded and so on

I said screw that!

So I sealed it with POR15
First I stripped the paint off the bottom of the tank around the sending unit hole, with spray on paint stripper (aircraft finish remover).
I used a bit of POR15 metal ready to etch the tank around the sending unit inside and outside to gine the POR15 something to bont to.
Then installed the sending unit then poured a tiny bit of POR15 in around the base of the sending unit and let it cure. Once it was cured I flipped the tank over and sealed around the sending unit on the outside.

End of leak... I just hope that sending unit never dies cause it aint never coming out of there again. POR15 hardens like steel and bonds like a sumbitch

[andy194bikes]

problem fixed, it was leaking from the stub pipe under the tank. circlip on pipe fixed the problem, no leak and no smell of petrol.thxs for all the help.thank god it wasnt the fuel sender unit itself