Carbs leak after my bike sits for more than one week....

Hello Everybody,

I have a 1982 750 Yamaha Maxim. My motorcyle will leak from the carburetors when running if I let it sit for more than a week without running it. Once I run the motorcycle for 10-15 minutes and then let it sit overnight, the leaking stops when it is running as long as I run the bike a mimimum of once a week. The bike never leaks when it is not running since I got the fuel cock replaced back in the 2008 season.

I recently brought my motorcycle into a shop that specializes in older bikes and the mechanic informed me that if the carb problem turns out to be the floaters that it would be highly difficult to solve the problem as they don't make Hitachi carb parts anymore. If they ended up doing a carb clean for $399 and then it turns out to be the floaters and they couldn't find any used ones then I would be SOL out of the carb clean money and still not have the problem totally fixed. The only thing they have for carbs is an after market carb kit that doesn't include floaters among other things. My mechanic told me that this is not a performance nor safety issue.

I've decided not to invest in this further at this time unless it gets worse due to no performance or safety issues.

For future reference, does anybody have any suggestions on how to get this fixed? Has anybody had similar problems? Has anybody ever had their carburetors switched out with another motorcycle brand?


Thanks,

Minnesota Rider

 

Have you checked with chacal on the availability of carb floats? What is the problem with the floats? Are they brass floats? No disrespect meant but are you sure about this mechanic you took your bike to.

 

First of all, welcome to the site!

If the petcock is fine, then movie down the line -- did the mechanic check the quality of the float valve needles and check the float levels? Maybe the float pin wasn't cleaned too well and they are sticking.

I'm curious why the mechanic said the floats would need to be replaced. They rarely need replacing. Just adjusting. And out-of-adjustment floats is the suspect 99% of the time when you have gas leaking carbs.

The mechanic has me in suspicion. You could clean/adjust the floats yourself and make sure all the steps are covered. If that's something you would want to do, then there's a how to article and plenty of people to help here on the forums. You'd need nothing except time.

 

Hello,

First of all, thank you for the reply.

What the mechanic was saying was that he would need to charge the $399 to take the carbs off the bike to see what is exactly wrong. If he finds out that in a worst case scenario that it is the floats, then there would be an added complication. If they don't find any used Hitachi floats, then it wouldn't fix the problem, and I would be out $399 for nothing.
Now if I roll the dice and it is not the floats and the aftermarket kit suffices then I would be ok.

I guess I wasn't really willing to take the $399 risk if I have a chance that spending that much wouldn't fix the problem if we come across a worst case scenario given that the bike doesn't have any performance or safety issues currently.

Thanks,

Minnesota Rider

 

I can tell you right now -- if you're willing to get your hands a little dirty and maneuver a wrench or two, you can most likely diagnose and fix the problem yourself for $0

 

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback. I can do some good work on my car here and there like changing sensors, hoses, oil, etc. However I feel handicapped when it comes to how to fix up a motorcycle.

Do you got any suggestions on how to become more motorcycle mechanical? Are there any good articles out there like you were mentioning? I just don't want to screw anything up and make even more of a hassle for myself. All the people I know who are mechanical are solely good with cars and know nothing about motorcycles.



Thanks

 

There are alot of people on this forum, including myself, who knew nothing of motorcycles until they bought one, joined this forum, and started tinkering on their bikes just using the information here and a service manual.

First thing I would suggest is to find either a Haynes or Clymer service manual for your bike, and just read through it. Flip through the pages and see what it takes to do some things. I think you'll be surprised how easy it is to maintain a bike yourself, even when it comes down to replacing major components.

Look around in the FAQ Suggestion area of this site. There are a ton of good first-hand write ups that explain how to do certain things; tips, tricks, and how-to's that the service manual doesn't cover, and other such things.

 

Hello and welcome to the forum!!!!!!
manofchange11 chacal does have floats for Hitachi carbs so check with him. Second never ever take your bike to some one how is charging you $399 to remove carbs and look at them. Are you comfortable with working on the bike yourself? The best thing is to get some manuals and ask lots of questions on this site. And get out your camera and take lots of pictures so you can show us what is going on. Don't be afraid to do the work. Don't take any short cuts because there aren't any!

BUT we are getting ahead of our selves here. You say you are leaking gas. Where is it leaking from? I mean is it leaking back into the air-box? Is there gas in the oil? The most common cause for gas leaking is not the float its the float needle valve sticking and I think that is more likely your problem. I would start looking there. If it was a float it would leak all the time. And you would have gas in your oil big time.

 

Seems kinda pricey to me. The carbs on my bike were cleaned by a mechanic before I bought the bike, with 4 carb kits included in the price, for $200, carbs already off the bike. Doesn't seem to me that $199 more, plus parts, is worth them taking the carbs off.

If you follow the instructions on here, and know a little bit about using a wrench and screwdriver, you could have the problem fixed for less than $100, and that includes all the chemicals to clean the carbs, and probably your own manual to boot. There are some excellent articles on here on how to clean, bench sync, running sync, etc., and the Wizards and Len (XJ4Ever) will get you running proper.

If you absolutely don't want to do the work yourself, shop around. The problem with shops that specialize in something just means that they can charge more than the guy doing better work out of his garage.

 

It's not as hard as you think. I just bought my first bike, came to this site, used the manual I have and the information on this forum, and was able to remove the back wheel and check the brakes, adjust the chain, replace the choke cable, remove, clean, install rebuild kits, check float levels, adjust floats, bench sync, and reinstall my carbs by myself. I have less than 100 dollars in repairs so far and my mechanical knowledge sucks! This site will get you through it, if you can live without riding the bike for a couple weeks and be adventurous, you can easily do it and will be glad you did. As many on here will tell you, there is a very wonderful feeling with fixing your bike and cranking it back up and it sounding nice, and the pride you feel knowing you did it yourself. Good luck and welcome to the site!

Mac

 

I take my Explorer to a mechanic, I don't let anybody TOUCH my XJ. If you follow directions and ask questions before you tear something apart, Bikes are way easier to work on, and a heck of a lot more fun! Just don't be afraid to ask for help on this forum. I've seen the wizards get a first time bike owner up and running from a pile of metal and two wheels.

Unlike a lot of other internet forums, we actually WANT to see you get that bike running proper and enjoying it for years to come.

 

Manofchange All the carbs I have done and all the posts I have read I have yet to hear one person with a bad float NOT ONE they do not go bad. Where do you live there might be someone near by that can give you a hand