TOPIC:

My bike's carbs leak a steady stream of fuel when it's running. For the first ten seconds nothing, then a steady stream. It comes out of the right most carb from the nipple at the bottom. I had thought this was where you drained the carb, but I guess it's the overflow? What do you think is going wrong?

I am too lazy to look up the type carbs you are using. I suspect VM24. If I am wrong, correct me and I will change my answer...

The VM24 brass spigot on the bottom is for overflow. A number of causes why gas will overflow on that type carb:

1. improper fuel level
2. bad float needle
3. bad seat
4. sediment/crud between float & seat
5. cracked overflow tube
6. float sticking; most likely obstructed by a bowl gasket

probably others I can't recall at this moment.

It is the VM24

How do I tell which of those it is and what do I do to fix it?

Have the carburetors professionally rebuilt by someone who knows what they are doing or buy a Kawasaki Factory Service Manual and attempt yourself. There is help here on this forum and carburetor professionals listed in the links section of the site.

Help from the forum is what I'm looking for. I have a service manual and I don't feel like giving a guy $200+ to have to wait three to four weeks.

Considering the bike was running fine and this just started today during the bikes first run in two weeks, what do you consider to be most likely and how would I check for that?

hold the bike upright and try tapping on the bowl. the vibration just may cause the float to unstick

I've had similar problems and mostly for the reasons George listed above.

Bad float needle - I got rebuild kits which contained new float needles. You can also buy individual float needles

Bad seat - this is where the float needle sits and shuts off fuel flow when the floats rise. Try this. Take a cotton swab or Q tip, dip it in carb cleaner and clean the seat.

Sediment - clean the seat and get an inline fuel filter to prevent it happening again.

Cracked overflow tube - patch it with a little dab of JB weld.


Do you have a manual ? Almost a necessity if you want to take off the carbs and DIY.
At the very least go to kawasaki.com , owner info, parts diagrams and print off and print off a copy of the carb parts diagram.

Good luck

.....................................................................................
Woodstock ON Canada
1980 kz750 E1, 4->1 K&N pods

I adjusted the float level and all is well. Gave her a good 100+ mile run and everything was great.

I had the same "pissin' overflow" problem. I read hundreds of archive forums (most with two bits from WG). I pulled the carbs and found a few things.

First problem was double gaskets on three of the carbs. Some gas was seeping from the bowl gasket on #2. See photos below. I thought this was just slack mechanics. You should be able to see the complete gasket on the Carb Body and the partial (old) gasket from previous cleaning still attached to the bowl. I'm assuming that at some point some pro was teaching some rookie shop hand how to clean carbs on the #1 (the clean one with only one gasket) then told the rookie to do the other three.

The #2, #3 and #4 carbs had something like caramelized napalm goo all over the float hendge, jet needle, and down into the jets. Those three carbs floats were frozen in place with the goo. The springiness on two of them freed up quickly enough. The 3rd one pushed in but didn't spring back. On that #3, it pushed in like a hydrolic arm and didn't spring back. So I believe that my overflow problem was caused by carmelized napalm goo mucking up the float action and probably sealing off the jets. Go figure.

One question, the brass barrel shaped "Throttle Valve" in the upper half.. all 4 were in various hights in the carb and varius freeplay in each. I didn't have time to break down everything and clean it today. I'm just curious what am suposed to expect once it was clean and back to perfect?

Tomtom

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Post edited by: secondhandtom, at: 2006/03/23 04:01

Carbs are upside down on a table to photograph. The number refers to the carb/piston position when on the bike.



Post edited by: secondhandtom, at: 2006/03/23 04:05