Hey guys/gals.

The past two days an orange oily fluid has leaked out of the drain hose at the bottom of the bike. It has done this 3 out of 4 times i've ridden it. From what I can tell it only leaks after being parked. The most fluid it leaked at once only covered about 6-8 square inches and smelled slightly of gas, but not completely. I followed the line, which led me to the bottom of the gas tank. The little metal overflow tube that sticks up about an inch when you take off the fuel cap looks a little orange/rusty. I didn't think I over filled the tank as I filled it on the side stand, but maybe when it sat in the sun it overflowed and picked up gunk in that line on the way down making it appear not gas like?
Any input will be very helpful and sorry to ask this nube question, but nothing I read about the issue quite matched my problem.

Bike info
2008 harley davidson nighster (3500miles)
48 tank on it
v&h straight shots with s&s air cleaner

bike is new to me and the mods were done by the previous owner so I don't have much common knowledge on it yet ,so please spare me haha.Thanks!

-Chase

 

Try putting something underneath it to catch a sample. If it comes from the gas tank, and smells like gas, it's probably gas. Your brake fluid is clear to slightly yellow, oil is a nasty dark brown.

 

Its gas, no worries.

 

Gas when you pump it comes out of the ground and is cool, it expands a lot when sitting in the sun, see if it still does it when you are less than half a tank.

I had a person at work come in and tell me my bike was leaking, it was the overflow from sitting in the hot sunny parking lot. It was an asphalt parking lot so the gas was dissolving the asphalt some and giving it a different look.

 

That's your gas overflow tube, nothing else! If fluid is coming out it's gas. If it's orange that's rust inside that tube mixing with the gas. Take a small plastic squeeze bottle with a nozzle small enough to fit into the tube inside the gas cap area and squirt some Marvel Mystery oil or similar product through the overflow tube to clean/flush it out. Then don't leave it out in the sun with a full tank of gas. You must've got moisture/water inside the overflow tube at some point for it to be flushing that much rust out. Does the inside of your tank have rust also? You may've got gas that had water in it a very common problem in some areas. Of course if you had the bike should've ran like crap during that tank full