Sad day for mikey...

[Mikey Dank]

Well I got my factory pro jet kit today. I'm a newbie in training so of course I'm gonna do it myself. I put 117.5 mains in, 115 out. When I put the new needles in, I put the top e clip on the 2nd notch from the top, put the plastic spacer in, and then put the other e clip in the bottom slot with the tiny washer on top of all that. I set the floats as close as I could to 15mm (using a cm ruler), had the A/F screws out 2.5 turns.

So I go to start her up, just for s^%#s and giggles, the only thing I'm missing is the exhaust can cause I'm waitin on my rs-3. I went to start her up, I got a pretty good fire right off the bat with a little twist of the throttle but she didn't start. I kept crankin her, figuring the bowls of the carbs just needed to get some more gas in them. As I kept crankin her of course the battery starts to die down, so I started pushin her over to my truck to jump her, I just wanted to hear it turn over and idle smoothly.

As I start pushin it to my truck I smell gas, so I take a look...There's gas coming from the drain in the bottom of the airbox and it looked I had quite the plumbing leak coming from the bottom of my carbs. I can't even cut it down to which carb was leakin it looked like all of them were. The bike wasn't even running! Maybe new gaskets on the bottom of the bowls? I'm baffled, and highly disappointed/frustrated. I haven't gotten to taking the carbs back apart because it got dark out and I'm confined to working in the driveway (sun went bye bye). If anyone has any idea what could be going on here I could use some help (CP, arsenic, Hardlydangerous, anyone...) and would greatly appreciate it, thanks guys.

[Touch]

My guess is you have the fuel valve set to "prime" and your floats aren't shutting the gas down. You can add fouled plugs to your problems. I wouldn't recommend ever running the bike without the muffler/exhaust...too much air flow and an immediate lean condition with an accompanying high idle.

Isolate the gas and crack a beer - wait for daylight to try ensure the gas is coming only from the airbox. You should probably also check the oil level/smell and the carb vent hoses.

Best of luck,
Touch

[DOCTORNITRO]

^ What he said!

[quik89Kat]

yep definetly a sign of the floats not cutting off flow....Pull the carbs bowls again if you dont have it on prime and make sure the floats are moving easily ...you may have jammed one float needle up ....

[Wild-Bill]

You've either got some drek holding one of the float needles open or they just decided now's a good time to quit on you. You shouldn't be flooding like that even if you did have the petcock on prime. The needles should shut off the flow no matter what the petcock setting. Try rapping on the bowls with a screwdriver handle to shake things loose. It probably won't work but it might and it's satisfying. After that doesn't work, curse a little (it's OK) and pull the carbs back off. Open the bowls, pull the floats/needles and clean the seats off with a Q-tip. wipe the needles with a rag and look at the pointy ends. If you can see a groove they need to be replaced. If you replace one then replace them all. If they're OK then put them back in. Then you get to put the carbs back in the bike and try again. Fun, huh?!

[kevin2502000]

You've either got some drek holding one of the float needles open or they just decided now's a good time to quit on you. You shouldn't be flooding like that even if you did have the petcock on prime. The needles should shut off the flow no matter what the petcock setting. Try rapping on the bowls with a screwdriver handle to shake things loose. It probably won't work but it might and it's satisfying. After that doesn't work, curse a little (it's OK) and pull the carbs back off. Open the bowls, pull the floats/needles and clean the seats off with a Q-tip. wipe the needles with a rag and look at the pointy ends. If you can see a groove they need to be replaced. If you replace one then replace them all. If they're OK then put them back in. Then you get to put the carbs back in the bike and try again. Fun, huh?!

+1

[doomed_preacher]

no offense but hitting the side of the carb with a screw driver is like saying i dont have a clue whats wrong with this but ima hit it to see if it stops it from leaking, ive seen it done a million times and i think its topped it once just to start leaking again in a few minutes lol

[md86]

Did you remember to close the float bowl drains ? Been there , done that ....

[Wild-Bill]

no offense but hitting the side of the carb with a screw driver is like saying i dont have a clue whats wrong with this but ima hit it to see if it stops it from leaking, ive seen it done a million times and i think its topped it once just to start leaking again in a few minutes lol

Yeah, but someone's gotta win the lottery... It's worth doing just for that one-in-a-million chance it might work without having to get into serious wrenching and it doesn't hurt anything. Idea is that the vibration may un-stick a balky needle. Besides, it's really satisfying! (You'll notice I did say to use the handle of a screwdriver - not a hammer - and that it probably won't work.)

[GregS]

It has nothing to do with the leak BUT, while you have the carbs off again, you should redo the way you put the E clips on the needles. There is only ONE E clip used per needle. The others in the kit are extras since they tend to go flying at the worst possible times. If you have a manual look for a diagram of the carbs and you'll see the order of the parts.

[Helmet_Hair]

The other neat little thing that happens on these particular carbs is the o-ring that seats the float in position gets dry/brittle/tamped down and causes fuel to leak into the bowl. When you pull the carbs off again, replace the o-rings on the floats.

[Mikey Dank]

I put the other e clip on the bottom of the spacer because as I was putting the carbs back together I noticed I forgot to put a spring in (DOH! ) So I took the one cover off and when I pulled the needle out the spacer stayed in the diaphragm head so I figured what the hell I'll make sure it stays on the needle by securing it in place with another e clip on the bottom, bad idea?

[arsenic]

what?

[hardlydangerous]

What are you guys talkin about

the only o ring in there is on the bottom of the float valve seat... nothing on the floats...

you can't run two clips on the needles... well you can but the lowest one will be your current fuel setting then you have no spacer again between the clip and the slide.

[Mikey Dank]

so you're sayin I eliminate the spacer and the bottom e clip? Then I would just have a needle, an e clip, and the washer on top correct?