[Fuel Leak - more like a drip]

Finally got around to replacing the other 3 float bowl carbs. After the gazillionth time having these carbs off the bike and back on, it finally runs like a top and not a single drip anywhere. Of course this was all caused from sitting. The bike is an '02 - 10 years old and it has 7,058 miles on the clock. Less than a thousand miles per year!!! Told the wife either we start riding it or I'm selling it! Thanks for the help guys.

[Fuel Leak - more like a drip]

Hi ragtop and eusa - My bike sat for a long time and would barely start and idle and ran real bad. It could not be ridden. It also had fuel leaking out of the overflow lines. I had the carbs on an off at least a half dozen times. Finally got them cleaned out and the bike runs and idles great and no longer leaks through the overflows. I thought this leak was unrelated to all that. Turns out I was wrong and you guys were right. The carbs don't leak out of the overflow but I do see one leaking around one of the allen bolts that holds the bowl on. I am assuming a bad gasket. I replaced one when I did all the carb work. Looks like I'm going to have to replace another. Maybe I should just do 'em all while I've got the carbs off the bike again?

 

Thanks for the help.

[Fuel Leak - more like a drip]

My '02 RSV seems to have developed a slight fuel leak. The leak is a slight drip coming from the end of an allen bolt. You can see the drop in the attached pic. What is the assembly that the bolt holds? Anybody have any idea of how to fix this? That assembly looks like a pain to remove!

 

Any help is much appreciated.

[New Member - Success with Carbs]

Hi All,

 

New Member here and learning a lot. I have 2002 Midnight Venture with less than 8000 miles. She still has the original tires. Below is a picture.

 

Lately she has been been doing nothing much beyond sitting in the garage collecting cobwebs. At one point several months ago I brought a new battery and went to start it up. It did not start and there was fuel leaking from the carb overflows. I am in SW Florida and and we have 10% ethanol in our gas and I'm figuring that did me in. Thanks to the great article from Freebird:

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=7830

 

I got the carbs off and cleaned up. Now the bike runs great and idles great. I had them on and off about 8 times before I finally got it right. On the last attempt I looked through one of the pilot jets and realized the tiny pinhole was a bit smaller than the rest. No amount of blowing would clear it. I have a carb cleaning tool that has wires in various diameters. I poked the smallest one through a good pilot jet and felt no resistance. I then poked it through the one with the smaller pinhole and felt resistance. I pushed it through and then blew it out again. I could *see* some crud fly out of it. After that it finally idled OK.

 

Only issue is that I somehow ended up with a left over screw that I *think* is from the bike. Probably from the area around the middle of the bike because I also replaced the fuel filter and checked out the fuel pump which turned out to be OK. There is a picture of the screw. It is a philips head and about 3/4 inch long with a washer. If anybody recognizes it and knows where it goes, I would appreciate it if you could let me know.

 

Since I got so much from this forum already, I would like to contribute something. One of the warnings in dealing with these carbs is to not lose the tiny O-Ring in the edge of the bodies that gets exposed when you remove the diaphragms. Of course I lost one - perhaps it was never there. At any rate, I had a set of O-rings I picked up a while ago from Harbor Freight to fix a leaky hand held sprayer. The smallest in this set worked pretty well in the carb and I like I said, the bike is running real sweet now. There are some pics showing the O-ring set and the label. Your biggest problem will be what to do with the other 381 o-rings in the set. I also found that using plastic cups to protect the intake while the carbs were off worked pretty well.

 

Thanks again Freebird for the great article. I probably would not even have tried this without it as a guide. After about the 4th time taking them on and off, I was able to do it in about 10 minutes. First time is always hardest!