Gas overflowing from carbs

Hi all. I have a 1982 xj650 Maxim. I have an auxiliary tank hooked up to the carbs off the bike and was checking the levels. All levels are good. I left the tank looked up to the carbs and went out for an hour only to come back to a small amount of gas on the carbs and my workbench. I just took a q tip with some Mother's polish and cleaned the needle seat because I had gas pouring from the air filter area. What would cause the gas to continue to fill if the floats are working properly?

 

It sounds like a very small amount is making its way past the float seat. If you put new "O" rings in, they make take a little bit to expand when the gas hit them. This could be a one time deal, and it might not happen again. Then again, that is why the stock petcock on these bikes is a vacuum type and only "should" allow fuel to run when the bike is running. Unless you are on "PRI" that will bypass the vacuum portion of the petcock.

You did a wet set as you said they are at the correct level. Did you have the carbs sitting on the bench or on a vice or mounted somehow so they didn't move when you were out for that hr?

I see you have another thread going, keep all the questions for the bike on one thread, that way you can track what you have done and the advice on what you are working on.

I would not worry about the screen on the float needle, I would use a inline fuel filter coming from the mail line before the carbs. Just to make sure. All the hard work to clean them, you don't want to chance having to take them off and clean those little screens up anytime soon.

 

I have an auxiliary tank connected to the carbs. The needles are only a few years old and the metal tip variety. I'm not sure what o rings you are referring to. All I did was polish the seats to make them shine like new and then used some carb cleaner and then blew them out with air. The carbs were sitting on my bench and I had a level on them to make sure they stayed.

 

I cleaned the seats again today and have an auxiliary tank hooked up and clear tube to check the levels. The carbs have had gas in them for over an hour now and everything is good and no leaking or overflowing. Not sure what to check next.

 

So no more fuel is coming out of the carbs after the second polishing of the float jets? I mentioned the "O" rings because if you did a full tear down of the carbs and replaced the "O" rings on the fuel rail, there might have been some fuel seeping buy until the rubber swelled up. That is all. No, you didn't mention anything about "O" rings, but then again, I didn't know how far down you took the carbs to clean them?

With all that cleared up, sounds like you have it taken care of and you should be ready to install them in the bike and see ow she runs. You did do a bench synch to the flies close and make the job easy to do once carbs are in the bike?

 

Absolutely did a bench sync!! Hopefully things go smoothly now, and I did purchase an inline fuel filter.

 

Fired the bike up and synced, fuel/air mixture set, synced again. Running sooo much better! Thanks for the help!