What the? I didn't see this coming...

So it was a nice day today... I decided to put my freshly cleaned and jetted carbs back on the bike and maybe take it for a ride. As soon as I opened the petcock to prime the carbs, I discovered a major fuel leak from both of the T's that the main fuel lines feed. The T's are leaking right at the carbs where they feed in. I don't see why those would be leaking now, I didn't seperate the carbs, so they weren't disturbed, yet they're both leaking now. I can't ride it like this, but at least the bike runs...

Does anyone know what's going wrong here? I need to fix this before the weather is really nice.

These are leaking from around where they seal inside the carbs:


Post edited by: alex_kz1k, at: 2006/03/05 17:05

If you cleaned them with too strong a solvent the rubber o-rings that seal those parts may have been damaged or eaten away.:whistle:

The fuel tee pictured is common to the VM26 mostly and used on double fuel inlet carbs. It is aluminum clad with nitrile rubber. The rubber tends to compress with age and from the fact that they pivot inside the carb bodies. When I rebuild carburetors I take two steps to ensure that these tees don't leak. I recoat with new nitrile rubber and then wrap with telfon tape. The rack must be split and I would strongly advise cleaning the carb bodies where the tees pivot as these may have glop which is causing wear from friction or chemical reaction (the white powder stuff). Other types of Mikuni carbs use aluminum fuel inlets and pipes that use o-rings to seal and these are best fixed by replacing the o-rings and then wrapping with teflon tape to be on the safe side.

Crap. I guess I'm taking the whole thing apart again. So I can still use the T's I have now, or should I order new ones?

i just coated mine with a fuel approved sealant and stuck them back together..hasn't leaked a drop since!

New ones would be Your best bet,BUT...I used teflon tape on My old carbs and they held up for over 2 years,until when I switched carbs...dry as a bone the whole time.

Is there anything I can try without pulling everything apart again? I didn't even use any cleaner on those parts, so I don't understand why they are leaking so much all of a sudden.

Alex_KZ1K wrote:

Is there anything I can try without pulling everything apart again? I didn't even use any cleaner on those parts, so I don't understand why they are leaking so much all of a sudden.

Not that I can see, unless you can get some kind of sealing goo completely around the Tee-carb body seams.

I went the teflon tape route and have had no issues since. Like your sig says, "Sometimes it's easier to do it the hard way."



- Nate >>

N0NB wrote:

Like your sig says, "Sometimes it's easier to do it the hard way."

I guess I'll take my own advice and start wrenching then. :S

I have used small sections of heat-shrink tubing on these tees with good luck. Just find a size that fits over the tee snugly, and reassemble. No shrinking required.