After I jacked up a choke plunger before the holidays, I had to shelf the VFR on the lift while fixing some brake issues on my winter bike (no car for me). Then there was the super cold weather (for GA, anyway) so I couldn't do anything outside like mess with carbs.
Then today was warm so I replaced the plunger. Reassembled, got it started, now it's pouring fuel from just one carb but only while the bike's running.
That's a stuck float, right? Usually?
In the morning I'm going to hook up the auxiliary fuel tank, I'm just wondering if maybe this is simpler than that....
First you need to figure out which carb it is. Simplest way is to take a bit of clear tubing (5/32" ID IIRC), put one end on the bowl drain spout, hold the other end at least an inch above the carb bowl top, and unscrew the drain bolt to fuel goes into the tube. If the fuel level is higher than about midpoint on the carb, then that's your stuck float. I'd check all of the bowls just to be sure, since it isn't a very time consuming process.
I usually drain the carb first, then tap, run fuel in it again, check, rinse repeat. It usually takes a few tries, but it eventually gets it.
Well, when it happened to me I just took the whole carb bank off the bike and opened up each one and made sure the floats were not stuck and moved them up and down a few times. Probably the long way to make sure they aren't stuck but it worked...
On a second note, I'm pretty good at taking the carbs on and off :smile:
The float needle seems to have seated itself during the night, I could not replicate the problem. The fuel rail is dry but there is still a leak on that one carb, an extremely slow drip. It is not coming from the drain tube but from the body of the carb itself, so I assume the bowl gasket has given up. Which I don't mind, these carbs are so much easier to remove and replace than any in-line four I've ever done! Yay, air box on top, what a great idea!
On the plus side, the clogged choke circuits, the reason I pulled the rack in the first place, seem to be operating like they should...I hope. Bike started with choke on, in just a few seconds I was able to turn the choke down and get a nice even idle that seems to not be "ranging" higher and higher as the bike warms like it did before.
It took two sets of Ebay carbs (one was destroyed during shipping :pissed: but supplied the parts, the other was a low-bid grab that served as a model for re-assembly and is actually in very good shape, yay spares) but now I'm about to go ride the thing.
The petcock is toast. It doesn't drip, it streams fuel, in "off." Rather than drop $45 on a new one that may have 25-year old rubber parts in it, I'd like to just neatly put an in-line valve where I can reach it between the tank and the fuel pump.
Any ideas? The only ones I see for sale are for little 50cc machines....
I had this problem on a recent rebuild. It was obvious which carb it was. Turned out the float chamber gasket was not seated properly and it was leaking through that.
right? That's what I think is wrong here....except it also seems to have sealed itself, I don't have a fuel leak ATT.
It's cold again and now the warmup is even stranger than before. I don't get this at all.
Normally a bike starts right away on full choke, revs up to 2k. Usually within a few seconds a bike will then rev very high, at which time you adjust the choke lever to bring it back down, and keep doing that till it's off of choke.
But not with this bike. It starts right up on full choke, revs to 2k, and stays there for about 15 seconds. Then while still on full choke, the idle drops way down and it just shuts off. It won't stay running with choke on or off. Just chunk-chunks down and dies, unless I stay with it and keep blipping the throttle on full choke.
Once warm there's no trouble re-starting. And once off choke, the idle is dead steady, no more raning.
I know I cleaned those choke passages and the fuel is fresh, clean and filtered. Bike runs perfectly after startup. But startup is a real bytch if it's cold. Ideas? Seb's sending me a set of intake boots, but really, the stockers may be old but they have no cracks and flex pretty good when I warm 'em up. I'm reluctant to blame the boots but what else could it be?
And thanks....
End of thread · 9 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 4 Jun 2011