Just rebuilt my carb on my 77 sportster all good doesn't leak. Havn't started it up yet gotta rechage my battery so hopefully I'll be able to do that tomarrow and hope and pray it will start up. But hers my probelm when I first bolted the carb back up to the bike and reattached the gas line it instatly started leaking out of the bottom of the accelerator pump housing. Simple fix just forgot one of the o-rings so fixed that and let it refill back up and absolutly no leaks not from the accelerator pump, bowle, or jets. But what is is doing fuel is comming out of the vent/over flow tube from the bottom of the carb. I'm thinking the float is stuck open enought to keep the needel that shut off fuel from entering the carb. So my question is how do if fix it with out having to rip the carb back apart. I'm thinking tomarrow I could just drive around for a lil bit and see if the vibrations from the road will fix it. Or if it could be something else causing this probelm.

 

If it's coming out the overflow, you ain't likely to even start it, let alone be able to drive around. It'll run richer than 10 feet up a bull's butt! You'll need to drop the float bowl and check things out. It might be nothing more than a piece of trash. When you rebuilt the carb did you follow the float setting procedure? Make sure the thing is set to the correct level. On my own bikes I normally set it a little low. I ain't much of a hot rod, so it works OK.

When you drop the float bowl, use a light and inspection mirror to check the seat. If they look OK, gently lift the float to seat the valve, turn the gas on, and see if it leaks. If it doesn't leak using light upward pressure, check the height again. If it does leak, then either the seat or needle is damaged. If it's a damaged seat, you'll just about have to get a new carb, though I had a buddy make a piece we covered with valve lapping compound and repaired a seat once.

Just thought of something else - HD has a 4 sided needle that works way better than the older 3 sided ones. If yours is 3 sided, get a new one from the HD shop. I've not seen any of these in aftermarket repair kits, and had to get one straight from the local stealer.

 

well I guess I didn't adjust the float good enought. When I had it apart I cleaned is as best I could the seat for the fuel valve didn't seem damaged. Totaly smooth with no dirt, chips, or scrates in it. I did use the 3 sided needle from my rebuild kit when I put it back to gether. Guess I wasn't close enought with my measurements to make sure the needle was sitting where is should be sitting. So tomarrow I'm just gonna take the blow off and readjust the float. I work in an auto shop and one of the guys that I worked with was telling me I should replace the float because the material it is was made of soakes up gas and doesn't float like it supose to. Is that ture? It looked fine to me but I'm no expert I just go with what I know for sure. I know its a motorcycle carb but a carb is a carb is a carb hardly any difference between an motorcycle carb and a regular auto mobile carb besides its size. I trust his opinion on things but would like some one else advice on this subject.

 

I've never replaced a float bowl on a Harley carb, except an old Linkert, and it was cork. Bendix had brass, IIRC, and your Keihin has a black plastic material. I doubt if yours has a problem, but you can drop it in a cup of gas and make sure it floats, if you want. Anyway, I've never seen one of the Keihin floats that were bad, except for when they were dropped, hammered, or tossed across the shop 'cause of an anger management problem!

 

You could drop those plastic floats in hot water and see if you get bubbles out of them which would indicate a leak.

 

thanks for the help guys I figured it out and fixed it. I was stupid and didn't adjust the float properly to begin with. when the blow is full with fuel the float wasn't high enought to sit the fuel needle propely and allowing too much fuel into the carb. Simple fix but one of those lil that can stop you dead in your tracks. Thanks for the help guys.