Guys,
A friend of mine has a 95 Kwaka EL 250. When he leaves the fuel tap on the bike floods. I'm thinking a stuck float etc. Am I on the right track ? What's the best fix ? Thanks in advance. He is going to bring it over next weekend and we are going to check it out and see if we can fix it.

 

Hey:

Bordo, you are right on track. That it is common on an Off road bike to get dirt in the carb and experience a stuck float, draining the tank while parked on it's side with the petcock on.

A good cleaning of the carb, make sure he has a good clean fuel filter, and while the carb is apart check for cracks in the float.

Good Luck

 

thanks Dub. Its not an off road bike but I think he told me its been sitting for a while and I spose the same thing has happened. I might tell him to get a gasket kit and we'll give it a full clean and go from there. BTW how are the radiator parts going ? Cheers.

 

+1 on stuck float or bad needle seat. At any rate fuel is getting past the valve.

 

Some bikes are just like that. Best fix is to remember to turn gas off, had a CB350 like that. One of my CB750's did it if the angle was to steep when on the side stand. Older HD's would dump the entire tank into the cylinders and then it would drain down into the crank area. Got to remember to turn it off.

I adjusted the floats on the CB350 to fix the problem but bike ran like crap so had to readjust floats back and turn gas off when parked.

 

Thanks Tim. Yes I told him we can either clean the carbs out and make sure the needle and floats are ok on both carbs or he can save himself some money and just remember to turn the fuel off. He hasnt got back to me yet......

 

In the olden days, it was usually a piece of rubber hose or rust between the needle and seat. One would bang on the carb(s) with a rubber mallet to unseat the debris. But with a bike that's been sitting, varnish has probably gotten on the needle/seat and has to be cleaned with Seafoam or better yet, manually cleaned.

 

^ I agree with slowpoke but........you never know when its gonna bite you in the back side. If it has a history of leaking, its best to turn it off if left for a period of time.

I'd hate to come out of a restaurant and find all my fuel on the ground. Or have it go up in flames.

When I first started reading slowpoke's reply I thought it was going to be more like this; In the olden days we always turned them off because they always leaked.