Flooding question

So, here I am, chasing my tail. (wonder how many of you kind folks have been there..)

Bike sat for two years. I bought it cheap, figuring it'd give me something to ride, etc.

I just shot the side covers and the tank. Pulled the carbs and had them dunked (no, I didn't let them dunk the O rings, had the guy at Yamaha do it). Cleaned the jets, bowls, etc. Now I'm getting it back together.

Last night I started it. Pegged the choke all the way over to get it to run, but she fired up sure enough. I'm sitting there feathering the idle and trying to back the choke down when I look down and see fuel...

I didn't yet put the air filter back on. Fuel was launching through my airbox onto the ground. I killed the engine, thinking I probably flooded it when I primed it to start.

Tried it again today, and it's still doing the same thing. Takes about 45 seconds to get to the point where the flooding occurs.

My thought is that the carbs need to be synched. I think the flooding might be occuring because I have the choke pegged over for so long, not because the carbs are dumping during normal operation. I think the reason I can't get it to idle right is due to bad synch, and the flooding is a byproduct of the choke, not the bad synch. I am curious to know if this'll happen if my floats are misadjusted, though. I doubt they are, since I was pretty careful with removing them, but should this be a point of concern? What will bad float adjustments cause?

Which also brings me to my second problem. I'm planning on synching my carbs either later today or early tomorrow. I have to say thanks to the more knowledgable people on the forums, as I'm kinda stealing the ideas for both the homemade vacuum cans and the YICS tool. The vacuum cans are already made, gonna be making the YICS tool later today if all goes well. I can't get the idle below 1700, and my choke is on all the way. I can deal with a little bit of fuel on the ground, but will running with the choke pegged still allow me to get my carbs synched? And will having an idle that high screw with synching?

Any thoughts?

 

Ok. Lets start from the top.
If you have any suspision that your floats are off, pull them and check them. There are a few wonderful posts on here on how to set your floats dry. That MIGHT be the cause of your flooding problem. Could be a stuck Needle in the float bowl. I'd double check if I were you.
Now, second. When you finished putting the carbs back together did you do a Clunk Test? making sure your pistons in the carbs are "falling" properly? That might account for your Idle.
Third. Did you do a Bench Sync? which is a "ball park" method of getting your carbs synced. There is an awesome post on here by Gamru on how to Bench Sync.
Fourth. Idle Adjustment Screw. Its located between 2 and 3 carbs. Try tweaking that AFTER you get your floats and pistons and bench sync done. twisting counterclockwise reduces Idle. Clockwise gains idle.
(EDIT)
Fifth. Idle Mixture Screws. Those little screws at the back next to your choke plungers. Twist them all the way in, at a GENTLE bottoming. Then twist them 2 full turns out to get them in the "Ball Park" You'll still need a colortune to set perfect after that, but its the proper setting to start tuning at.
Sixth. According to Chacal, and I second this cause I've been tuning for two months, none of this means anything if you havent done a Valve Check. Getting your valves in spec is the starting point on fine tuning your new baby. Good posts on here about that too.
(End Edit)
You DO NOT want to run your bike with that much gas dripping. Especially right there in the center. It could fall on your exhaust and cause a not so awesome flaming fireball of burning Maxim/Seca (Post your bike year and model in your signature please. We'll all be more help if we know what your twerkin with)
-SLKid

PS. Personal opinion BTW.. I think that taking your stuff to the Dealer is a waste of cash. I was in NO WAY mechanically inclined three months ago and I got my Maxim back up and runnin with my own hands and a LOT of help from this site. Time and patience buddy

 

Your floats are hanging up and letting too much gas into the float bowls and overflowing your carbs. Yes it would be helpful to put what model and year bike wwe are trying to help you with in your signature.

 

If it's flooding, either:

a) a float or float(s) are set WAY too high, allowing the fuel bowls to overflow before the float ever rises far enough to press the float needle into the float seat valve and thus shut off the fuel flow.

b) the float needle/seat unit is damaged, and thus cannot ever shut off the fuel flow.

c) the float needle is hanging up within the float seat bore, and thus never shutting off the fuel flow.

The choke has nothing to do with flooding.

Are ALL the carbs flooding, or is it just one or two?

On the carbs that are flooding, you might try giving the float bowls a couple of sharp taps with an hard object (not a big hammer!); if the needles are somehow hung up, this type of vibration might free them up and release them to do their job.

If not, or if the above method works and then the problem returns, you're going to have to pull the carbs and do some inspection of all this float-and-needle related to determine where/whay/why/how the problem develops.


ALSO.....if it has been flooding like that, you run the riskk that fuel has gotten down into the engine case, in which case your oil is full of fuel, and the oil needs to be changed before the engine is run again.

 

Hah, you guys are awesome. Quick responses, wow.

Okay, starting from the top. My bike is an 82 Maxim 550.

I didn't do any of the bench testing, to tell the truth. Looks like I'm pulling 'em back off, huh?

To SLKid, thanks for the thorough response. The only thing I took to the dealer was the carb body. Took the jets and bowls off myself and kept them separate and labeled. They have an agitator up there that does some damn fine work cleaning up the body and the guy I took it to knew what he was doing as far as not dunking the O-rings and such. Everything else, I'm fixing with my own two grubby hands.

To MN-Maxims: Sig added. And a second opinion saying my floats are hanging. I'm sensing a pattern...

To Chacal: Man, reading the posts on here, your idolized. I'm humbled.

I'm pretty sure it's coming from #2. I've got no problem getting the carbs back off and making sure the floats are set properly among other things. I'm pretty sure I'm pulling them and starting with SL Kid's list of things to do.

You guys really know how to keep a tech busy. Wow...

Could anyone post a link up to the most informative carb walkthrough on the forums. There's a ton of carb posts, wasn't sure if there was one or two I should be really paying attention to or not.

~Edit~

I just reread my original post. When I said I could deal with a little bit of fuel on the ground, I was referring to during setting the carbs. I have no desire to become a fireball at 60 MPH (as much as my ex probably wouldn't mind...)

 

Thanks Music! But most of it is not really true.........

Carb articles: you can start here:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14751.html

and then once you grasp the basics of that, move up to the big leagues, here:

http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14692.html


Better have a comfortable chair............

 

Hah, modesty is a wonderful thing.

Already pulled the carbs, figured someone would post back while I was pulling them. Man, I wish putting them back on was that easy...

Quick story. The first time I put the carbs on, I forgot to hook up the throttle cable. They really don't give you much room to fish the cable in there after everything's said and done. Talk about a bitch of a time...

Time to start some reading...

 

Ok here you go. One of the places those Mukuni carbs leak fuel into the float bowls is shrunken o-rings on the brass float seats. If you have the carb bottoms off pull out the seats and see how they fit in the holes. If they are loose or slide in and out easy the o-rings are shrunk. You need to get some new ones and that will fix that part. Now if those are toast your other rubber goods may be bad also. Throttle shaft seals and fuel tube o-rings. Wouldn't hurt to replace those since you have the carbs off. Don't forget the o-rings on the mixture screws those may be rock hard too

 

i have the same issue and i would like to purchase a set of carb rebuild kits. does anybody know where i can find them? ebay does not have them. one guys auction stated will fit but they were the wrong ones.

thanks

 

chacal can get almost any part you need. PM him