It's all your fault Dave!

[The Seeker]

....you jinxed me Dave!!!

Last night I rode my T140 out to the County Fair as that's something people in my business need to do for PR's sake and because a few horses I sold were being shown and/or competing in pulling contests.

So I throw the kickstand down and while I'm removing my helmet, gloves, etc. I notice fuel dripping madly from one of my Mikuni carb's overflow tube.

I turned off the fuel petcocks and put the bike on it's center stand since I thought it may help if it wasn't leaning (it was the left carb leaking). That didn't stem the flow at all???

I never really thought about the fact that my fuel petcocks may not work properly since I never saw any fuel leakage in the past, but evidently, one or both of them don't actually shut off the fuel because it kept leaking.

It was dripping enough that I was actually worried that it might drain my tank while I was walking around the fair. Nevertheless, I took the chance it wouldn't.

So ever since I read and responded to your thread Dave about your carb doing the same thing, I've been jinxed.

 

[DaveM]

That must have been why my one just mysteriously stopped leaking, it found a new home your bike

 

[The Seeker]

Gee...thanks for that "gift"

 

[DaveM]

Anytime you don't need to thank me its always a pleasure to share

 

[The Seeker]

LOL....how 'bout the next time you are feeling so generous, you give me a bit of warning?

 

[DaveM]

Ok I was thinking about my lotto win this weekend how much warning do you need :y24: :y24:

 

[CarlS]

I do hope you win it, Dave.

 

[Ksquared]

Let's see - - - - how's it spelled???

K A R M A

It's a bitch, ain't it????

 

[DaveM]

I do hope you win it, Dave.

If I do I will make it all right with AJ and buy him a coke with a smile

 

[The Seeker]

Well, I thought the problem had cured itself since I've ridden the T140 a few times and haven't experienced the problem again.....until LAST NIGHT!!!

In fact, it was kind of scary.....

I rode up to Bike Nite again last evening and had no fuel leakage from the carb on the ride up there or while the bike sat parked during the evening.

The weather report said there was a 40% chance of thundershowers, and although I like riding my Trophy in the rain with MODERN tires, I DO NOT want to ride this old bike with Dunlop K-70 tires in the rain if I can help it.

As the evening progressed the wind picked up and you could tell it was ready to rain, so I decided to leave early and head for home. On the way home, the wind picked up even more and since I felt the rain was close, I decided to go much faster than I normally would.

So I'm cruising along about 70-75 MPH when suddenly the bike begins to get kind of squirrely as if the rear was on ice or something. I instantly slowed down not knowing what the problem was (it was dark already). The bike settled down and I tried to accelerate again but the bike again gave me the shakes. Honestly, I was thinking the rear axle bolt had loosened up on me. But if I went slow, it felt OK so I decided I could nurse the bike home before taking a closer look.

Arriving home, I took a closer look and both front and rear axles were secure......then I realized the left carb was flowing fuel from the overflow tube again....massively!

As I looked closer, I could see that the overflow tube had been dumping this massive amount of gasoline and as I was going faster, it was spraying it back onto the rear tire which was what was making the bike feel like it was on ice. If I slowed down, the fuel stayed off of the tire and the bike performed OK.

I then realized how lucky I'd been to not have gone down and it sent shivers down my spine.

Now I just have to find the culprit inside that left carb.

 

[DaveM]

That could have turned out very nasty indeed glad you made it back ok

 

[The Seeker]

Well, I'm hoping that I got this problem licked at least for awhile.

I removed the offending carb and took off the float bowl. The floats themselves seemed to be working just fine so I turned my attention to the inlet valve. After unscrewing it and looking closely inside, I found a minuscule "flake" of what I think is rubber fuel line.

It looked to be like a tiny flake of rubber that flaked off of the inside of the fuel line.

I flushed it all out with a can of carb cleaner and then reassembled everything.

So far, with the carb mounted back on the bike and with fuel lines attached again, I have no more flow form the overflow tubes. I also took the bike for a short trip and left the fuel petcocks open without anymore leakage.

 

[DaveM]

Well it does seem you found the offending bit of dirt that was causing it.

 

[CarlS]

I'm glad you found the problem and I;m certainly glad you did not have a get off as a result of the fuel leak. Good news all the way around.