soon as I turn petcock on, the gas flows freely out of both the bowl vent hole and the overflow tube. any suggestions? Do I need to take the entire carb apart? I will if I have to but I'd prefer asking some of you more knowledgeable guys, before I go to ripping the carb apart.

 

I would probaby start by dropping the bowl, sounds like something is keeping the float from rising like the needle is not seating , possible something lodged between needle and its seat or the float could be cracked and not floating could be a real simple fix. Also try tapping the bowl.

 

what keeps the gas in the bowl is the needle and seat, kinda like the float in your toilet bowl. if gas is coming out then its gotten something in it or its just bad. you can unscrew the bowl, while its on the bike, and drop it, clean the needle and seat, and inside of the carb, and check the float setting.

 

Great example with the toilet bowl.

 

that would be really true if it was a Super G

 

Just replace the needle and seat with a new S&S Viton kit and resent the float height correctly. The new Viton seals are alcohol friendly with our 10% pump gas blends.

 

thanks bud, great analogy! haha, took care of it today, took it apart and cleaned everything, installed s&s rebuild kit. float was good, so was everything else surprisingly. But i did it anyway oh I did find alot of what looked like sand. cleaning the tanks now, gonna coat the insides tomorrow.

 

Sounds like you figured it out! Yeah ONE grain of sand in the wrong place will wreak havoc on a carb! I too have an S&S E shorty and LOVE it. It's always worked flawlessly....knock on wood I gotta ask, who's that in your new avatar??

 

similar thing happened to me right after i bought mine,just happened to be at the stealer,so went back to service and they said was my vent in my gas cap was plugged so they sold me a $35 gas cap. get home,shut bike off,stars pourin out again. start messin around with stuff and find out the vent tube comin out the top of tank was pinched between dash trim panel and the tank. drilled hole in the trim piece and good to go. saved me from tearin the carb apart & i got a shiny new gas cap!

 

sometimes you can shut the petcock off and let it run 'til outta gas...then turn petcock back on and rushing gas will flush debris out...works good when away from garage.