Just filled my 95 Sportster this afternoon and rode home. When I parked I noticed gas leaking from what I think is the tank overflow tube. It's located on the left side near the lower front of the engine. I followed the hose around to the right side and up under the tank. I shut off the gas and it stops but starts up if I turn the gas back on. It's leaked enough I know it's not because the tank is overfilled. Any suggestions?

 

The needle in the carb is stuck open. Didn't use fuel stabilizer did ya? Your fuel turns to varnish when it sits for a while and gumms stuff up. Sounds like a carb rebuild....

 

Happened to me on the first three bikes I owned. Sat for a long time, it happens. You could try rapping on the carb float bowl with a screwdriver handle. Might make it stop, if thats what it is.

 

Had some crap in the carb make my 03 Heritage run fuel on the floor. Had to flush it out and it has been fine since then.

 

My wife claims I have a gas leak problem..... a rather LOUD one!... She can't hear it though, when we're on the sportster!

 

lol !!!

 

My wife had the same problem with her '94 Sportster. The problem turned out to be the 14 year old strainer in the tank had holes in it and was coming apart. It costs like $12 to get a new one. You'll have to drain the tank since to get to the strainer you have to remove the shutoff valve. WHen you pull the valve there will be a tube going up into the tank. Where it goes into the tank you'll see plastic and that's the lip on the strainer. Pull that plastic out and that's the strainer.

The carb should be relatively clean except for what the strainer let past. The gasoline flowing throw it keeps it pretty clean. If you want to get adventuresome you can pull the carb and clean the float bowl. The problem isn't the gunk in the bottom of the bowl, but rather the gunk that comes down the fuel line from the tank and gets lodged in the float valve. That keeps it from shutting off until it gets dislodged so the fuel keeps flowing and it comes out the overflow.

 

Here's an easy fix suggestion that might solve the problem and save you a lot of time, work and expense.

I had the same problem on my 96 FXSTC. I asked about it on the EVO section of this forum. Like here, there were several fixes but the one that worked for me was this. There is a vent tube from the tank that runs down to a vent vapor valve. If the valve or the tube is stopped up or restricted, it allows pressure to build up in the gas tank and causes gas to overflow through the overflow tube.

Some riders just removed, and left off, the vapor valve. In my case, it so happened that some careless so-called mechanic (me) had replaced the battery and pinched the vent tube under the battery cable. This tube can also be pinched by the seat with proper effort by a careless tech. Once I removed the tube from under the batt cable, my fuel overflow leak was no more.

Hope this is all you need. There is info on this if you do a search on the Evo forum.

 

I've had the same a couple of times from the 97 1200 I got recently. I just remember to turn to fuel off when I get off, but as soon as I get time I mean to clean/adjust the carb. I don't know much about motorcycles yet, but I can usually fix about anything.

 

Post a pic of yourself so that we may better help you.