Fuel Leak

First off, I'm new to the site and think it's a great resource. I just bought my first bike, a 1983 KZ440D, and it seems to have developed a fuel leak. At first I thought the leak was coming from the bottom of the bowl on the left side. I checked the float level and it seems ok. Correct me if I'm wrong, but if the fuel level was set too high, wouldn't the leak come from the overflow tube? Is it possible that the leak is coming from the fuel tube that runs between the two carbs? If this is where the problem is, how would I go about fixing it? The bike runs great except for an occasional backfire, which I'm guessing means that it's set too lean. Could these two problems be related? I'm really getting tired of pulling the carbs off and putting them back on. Any help would be appreciated.

Welcome Daniel. One technique for getting tighter responses is to ask tighter questions. You might want to ask about only one thing and get that issue sorted on a stand alone basis and ask about another thing in another thread. As I understand it, you have three problems.

1. you don't like pulling your carburetors
2. leak
3. backfire

#1 I can't help you with. I do this many times each day and have figured out ways to make this task easier on my carburetor test bikes. I am sure you will to in time. If you have a hard time inserting the carburetors into your intake manifolds and airbox fittings, buy new ones and also wipe the manifolds and fittings with WD40. The carburetors go in a lot more easily.

#2 leaking. You are not sure where your carburetors are leaking. They can leak from the following places/reasons:

fuel level too high
cracked bowl pipe
bowl oring
loose bowl screws
fuel pipe
vents blocked

The first step in figuring out how to stop a leak is to figure out where it is coming from. If it is the fuel pipe leaking, the fuel pipe has o-rings on each end that are inserted into the carb bodies. Split the carb rack, replace the orings and I add teflon tape as well when I rebuild carburetors. About 4" of tape for your carburetors is right as you double it over when wrapping. Resync carbs when you are done. If it isn't leaking at the fuel pipe, figure out where it is and let me know.

#3 backfire - Lean isn't the way to describe infrequent backfiring although it is caused by a lean condition. The lean is more likely an air leak than a basic air/fuel mixture problem caused by jetting or plugged air passageways. If there are caps on the vacuum ports or intake manifolds, these MUST be fixed. The other cause for backfiring is a weak spark and the mixture isn't detonated properly. See the coil repowering mod in the Filebase section.

See how messy an answer can get when it tries answering multiple questions? If any of these issues go unsolved due to my answers not being correct, repose the questions individually and I bet you get some great responses. Good luck.

del