Aaaaaagh petrol leak

[micky0121]

Help please , My Kawasaki Klr600 is peeing expensive fuel from the overflow on the carb , I know nothing about carbs and my local Kawasaki dealer ??????? says sorry sir we dont work on bikes that old , Nice eh , Thank you Cradley Kawasaki ,
Does anyone know a decent machanic around Bartley Green , Birmingham ,
Have not got a manual yet as biking on a shoestring .
Thanks
micky0121

[MickC]

You could just have a stuck float, try tapping the offending carb bowl with a rubber mallet or screwdriver handle. On my 900 i once had a similar problem, you could also try turning the petrol off and draining the fuel (using the float chamber drain screw - on bottom of float chamber) if there is any crud in there that might get it out.
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Previous: CG125,XS250 (converted to 400),Z250A, GPZ550, Norton Commando, XS500, 78 Laverda Jota, GPZ1100,Harris bonneville, XV750 (mono shock),TR1

[micky0121]

Hi MickC , have tried both of these , even taken the float bowl off , no dirt and dangly bits ( mechanical term ) go up and down so don't seem stuck ,
Thanks
micky0121

[whitedevil]

leaky petcock?
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GPZ500 sold ~ CBR600FS-2 sold ~ ZX6R sold ~ Street Triple R

[Fairies attack]

Take this with a pinch of salt.

My dad had a similar problem with his VF400f carbs. After taking them in and been told pretty much the same thing he decided to strip them down himself and found that it was something to do with the seals on the pipes between them.

Fixed it for about 50p.

[hornetmike]

It will be float related messed about with old kawisaki carbs for ages before I figured out what was wrong.

Look at the end of the float needle and check isn't worn (if its got a grove in part of the cone it need changing try wemoto0.

Or

Check where the float valve seats in the carb for dirt or wear.

The floats should be able to hold a broken tap.
____________________
87 Honda CG 125 - 97 ER5 - SR 50 -81 Z250- 96 CBR 600 F- 94 GPX600R 88- GPX 400R- 87 GS 125 - 2006 Honda CB600F- 2003 ER5 - Honda CBF 1000 2009 - Honda CBR 600 RR 2011
Current BMW R1200GS 2010

[ZRX61]

[neil.]

Had the same on my YBR after the bike went over on its side. Opened up the carb, the pin that the float pivots on had come out partially so the float wasn't pushing the needle valve enough to seal it. The pin just sits there, not really held in place by anything. Just a simple case of resetting it. Or it might be that one of your floats is leaking and therefore not floating anymore. Once you get the carb off it's a really easy job to check and you should actually take the float out and give it a shake to see if any petrol is inside.

[micky0121]

Hi All and many thanks for the many replies to my prob , took carb off , checked float no fuel in there , all on floor needle valve has no marks on it , floats pivoting ok ,fuel stops when I turn stopcock to off, so I presume either dirt somewhere else or float level wrong , but why would the float level suddenly change ,
If float level is wrong thats getting to techy for me as no manual and looked on internet how to check and looks very wizardy with gizmos they use .
micky0121

[MickC]

If this is a problem that has just started up its not likely to be related to how the carb is set up, a sugestion from another site i used to be on: get a 'G' string (from a guitar not your wife) and carefully thread it through all your jets to make sure there is no crud(technical term) blocking them. Also you said the float bowl was empty and the fuel was on the floor(?). So check the rubber seals around the fuel delivery(where the fuel pipes enter the carbs).
____________________
XX XXXx
Previous: CG125,XS250 (converted to 400),Z250A, GPZ550, Norton Commando, XS500, 78 Laverda Jota, GPZ1100,Harris bonneville, XV750 (mono shock),TR1

[hornetmike]

Its the floats job to stop fuel overflowing.
____________________
87 Honda CG 125 - 97 ER5 - SR 50 -81 Z250- 96 CBR 600 F- 94 GPX600R 88- GPX 400R- 87 GS 125 - 2006 Honda CB600F- 2003 ER5 - Honda CBF 1000 2009 - Honda CBR 600 RR 2011
Current BMW R1200GS 2010

[micky0121]

Sorry if I misled you , Fuel on floor from overflow on bottom of carb and by an empty float bowl I meant no crud , it did have fuel in at least till I unscrewed the "thingy" on the side .
micky0121

[anthony_r6]

My bike used to leak fuel when the tap was on and the bike wasn't in use. When I bought it, the guy instructed me to turn it off whenever I was off the bike for more than 5minutes (The few times I left it on weren't good!) It would drip at a constant rate. I looked into it on here and some other places and thought it may have been the float, but when I first got under the tank I noticed there was a slit in the fuel line. Just a thin cut along the top of the pipe. Once I cut the pipe back to beyond this, it stopped dumping it, and hasn't had a problem since.
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Ted : "Maybe he's agoraphobic."
Dougal : "Jack scared of fighting? I don't think so, Ted."

[micky0121]

Have taken tank off and left it standing with tap in off position and no leaks , therefore I am guesssing it's back to the carb as the pipe is ok ,
From what everyone says looks like either float not set correctly or crud in jets , am not confident in stripping the carb any further than float bowl off , so I guess it's a local mechanic if I can find one who works on a 25yr old bike'
So thanks for all the help and smilies , I enjoyed
micky0121

[neil.]

It should be easy to get the floats themselves off so you can check the needle valve. Have you actually taken the carb off the bike, because it might easier if you do? Once you've got the float bowl off you just need to slide out the pin that acts as a hinge for the floats, then you remove the floats which will have the needle valve attached, hanging off them. It's a really easy job to do, a bit fiddly, just be a bit careful that you don't drop the little bits by accident - take your time. Other thing might be that the drain hole in the float bowl is leaking. Once I had taken the bowl off, I just sprayed some carb cleaner in to it to see if the drain screw was creating a good enough seal, just to eliminate that first, before moving on to the floats and needle valve themselves.

[micky0121]

Hi
Had the carb off , done all those checks , the drain screw is not leaking as the fuel is coming straight through the overflow , floats are sealed as no fuel in them and needle valve is clean and no marks.
Ta
micky0121

[virus]

[micky0121]

Well it's one less customer and nowaday's nobody can afford that .
Know of any decent bike dealers or bike mechanics in the area , am having probs finding one , Street Bike said it's a Kawasaki we don't give info on them ,
Is Kawasaki a disease or an ageing problem or do I smell
micky0121