Hey guys any self help pointers would be greatly appreciated! I am unemployed and don't have the ching to take my bike to the shop! I don't know anything about carbs!

2003 Night Train with stock motor and carb. Santee shorty pipes.

Bought used last year and ran awesome all summer. One day later in fall I hit a stop light and gas started pouring, I mean pouring, from air cleaner. Could potentially have been dripping before that and I didn't notice. Turned off and let all evaporate for about 15 minutes. Ran fine after that and didn't do it again on last few rides of the year.

Took out for the first time today. Initially started up no prob. Took for about a 2 mile loop around the neighborhood, gas started streaming out of the air cleaner as I was riding. Needless to say, took straight home.

Took off air cleaner and started bike. The brass needle (idle?) shooting into the carb looks like it shoots too heavy. After a minute or so of running, and especially if I give it any throttle, it starts pouring gas out.

Why would this suddenly start to happen? I put about 3500 miles on it last summer with no issue. Any ideas on what to do? Thanks much!

 

Gummed up float valve, IMHO. Take bottom off of carb and spray carb cleaner liberally at float /needle valve. Nothing much 'cheaper' than that. Be slow and careful, and all gaskets, etc should be re-usable. Don't bend float.

Or.... does your carb have a 'drain' screw where you could drain out the contents of the float bowl? If so, pull that screw, pull the fuel line going into carb, and spray carb cleaner into fuel inlet and let drain out drain hole. Sitting around without StaBil, will gum crap up.

Maybe acell diaphragm torn... but try a good cleaning first.

If that doesn't fix....... post back up.

 

if it happens again shut fuel valve off and run until stall.mine did this and it fixed the problem.

 

agree. take it apart and clean everything, including the needle and seat. make sure your float is adjusted right and put back together.

 

It is the float sticking, allowing the fuel to continue to to pour into the bowl and eventually overfill the bowl and then run out. Sticking float can be due to being gummed up as others have said, but also can be from a contaminent that gets lodged between the needle and seat. The contaminent could be a small piece of rust or something that got into the fuel tank while filling. Pull the bowl off the carb (shut the fuel off ), remove the nedle and cleaner everything with carb cleaner being careful to not lose or bend anything. Reasemble and you will most likely have fixed the problem.