Fuel and oil gushing from carb at startup. Oil filter bolt stuck and stripped.

So, went to start my bike the other day and this happened:

I spent Sunday pulling the carbs out and giving them a solid once over (not church of clean, but just a quick job to make sure needles were moving.) Hoping that does it.

I then went to drain oil and the dreaded oil filter bolt is stripped and stuck from PO. I remember barely getting it off last time I changed oil. It won't budge and will have to be extracted.

Any tips on the best method for getting the bolt out. I have a couple easy outs. Will these work?

Len still have those conversion kits / replacement bolts?

 

drain oil out of oil drain plug.

if you got the filter bolt out before use a 6 point socket and try then vise grips, then grind the head off the bolt you will see a circle form when you are almost done grinding.

you could drill into it and use a larger easyout

that gush looks like it is coming out of the top of the case behind alternator

 

Thanks for the advice! Finally have time to deal with this. So, I may try grinding the head off of the bolt to reveal the circle. What do I do then?

What do you think the gush coming from the top case would indicate?

I tried quickly cleaning the carbs (didn't adjust floats) and bike started and ran fine for a trip, then starting gushing out the oil/gas again. Carbs are off again and getting a good cleaning. Seems like slides on 1 and 3 are hanging a bit. Could this be the cause?

I am going to set float height properly. Changing spark plugs while I'm at it.

 

Hangins slides aren't causing that to happen.

The fuel is gushing out because the float needles aren't sealing, or the floats are stuck, or the float needle seat gaskets have failed.

Have you taken the carbs to church in the past?

Under no circumstances try to start the bike again until you have the fueling problem fixed.
You can end up with bent connecting rods if she hydrolocks.

 

Isn't that where the breather pipe is on the 550?

I do recall having a conversation with Fitz about a bolt in that location that does something different from the one on the 650/750. I can't for the life of me remember what it is for on the 550 though.

 

his leak seems to be coming out of the case marked in red if it was the tube it wouldnt be hidden under the carb

 

That's where I thought it was coming out from, which is why I mentioned the bolt. If the breather tube was misrouted, or missing, that could possibly make the overflow splash as we see in the video.

Regardless, the carbs need tended to and then the problem will go away.

 

Thanks again fellas. Agreed. That quick cleaning was not adequate. I took them to church around three years ago and got a lot of mileage out of them. It's time to do it right.

I have them apart now. Float needles look to be in good shape, but did clean off some varnish. Will check the seat gaskets next. Can you tell from visual inspection if they've failed?

I noticed that two of my slides were hanging up. I know this isn't causing the problem, but I want to get them working well. I scrubbed the bores and slides. Wondering if the diaphragms may have pinholes or tiny tears... Is there a basic way to test for diaphragm leaks when a hole isn't visible?

Thanks for the image. I'll make sure breather tube is routed properly when I put things back together.

 

The slides should not be polished; just the bores. The gold coating is a friction reducer, and removing that is not a good idea.
If you don't see holes or cracks with a bright light behind the diaphrams, then the only possible way air couls get past them is if they are not seated into their retention grooves when the top hats go on.

The only way that I know of to check the needle valve seat gaskets is to remove them and replace with new.

 

A gush like that would scare the pants off of me! I’m with k-moe, don’t even turn it over until that issue is resolved.

 

Hopefully you have better luck than I on the oil filter. I went through hell a few months back removing it, so I could add the spin-on. Easy-outs didn't work. After grinding down to the circle, I tried three different kinds of easy-outs again, and had no luck. Damn thing was resisting everything.

Worst-case scenario, what worked for me was (unfortunately) to mangle the filter by breaking off a tab underneath, then using a drift and mallet against the fins, at a good angle to tap and get it to start spinning off. Broke most of the fins doing this - but it worked.

Hopefully it doesn't come to that for you. It's no fun destroying a part that y'know is in shrinking supply.

 

The housing didn't pop off when you got rid of that last bit of bolt head?

 

Nope! weirdest damn thing. It simply would not move no matter what I tried. If I remember right, there was some nasty junk in between, like the PO used some sort of gasket sealer between the filter and it's mounting surface - But, heck if I know, and I have a hard time believing that could've caused so much trouble.

 

Holy crap! Thanks for sharing your experience. That sounds like a horrific situation.

So, the idea is that you can grind away the bolt head and the housing will break loose and slide over where the bolt head was? I could not figure out why I would grind the head off, but that makes sense. So then are the threads of the bolt stuck in there? If I grind off the head will I have to use the spin off version or can I extract the bolt and get a replacement. Money is super tight.

 

Noted! Thanks!

 

You should still be able to use the original housing. Chacal has a replacement bolt, I believe. I think you might find it on this page of his site: http://www.xj4ever.com/catalog/e-2-oil.html

Reach out to him, and he'll help you narrow it down to just what you need

 

He does. I replaced this bolt on both of my bikes at this point. The stock ones that were on there had the smaller head. Chacal sells one with a LARGER head. It is much better.