Greetings,

Trying to get back into riding, especially now that a friend has just bought him a bike, Im posting this for a friend of mine, who just purchased his first bike, 1994 Softail. Bike was sitting for a while and ran fine yesterday. Last night he parks it, shuts the fuel off and lets the bike run until dies. This morning he turns the fuel to "on", and its a steady stream of fuel being dumped from the underneath, out of the overflow line. It also looks to be flowing out of the carb. Trying to attach the pictures

Petcock off, no leak....

Petcock on, pours out.
, but any thoughts?

 

ok...........So heres what we did, and it has seemed to have stopped it. We took the air cleaner assembly off and tapped on the carb assembly. Seems to have stopped, but I'm guessing its a temporary fix. Were assuming either rebuilding the carb., (new float etc..) or any other suggestions?

 

My 2000 Fatboy is doing a similar thing. My mechanic told me it's from a stuck float and may need to consider replacing the entire carb. I just turn the petcock off when I kill the bike and it doesn't leak. It's definitely a bandaid fix but it works.

 

I had a lawn mower do this a few years back. Ran good fuel throw is and seafoam cleaner and it never did that again.

 

If your going to take the carb off , then doing a complete rebuild makes sense . What you have there is a stuck float , a small pin / seal that slides up and down through a fuel inlet . When it starts to wear down , it will catch , so by tapping on the carb , it released the float and stopped the flow of fuel . It may not be necessary to replace the carb , just a complete cleaning and rebuild kit .

 

Check the overflow hose is attached and leading to the back of the bike near tranny, so it dumps on the ground.
Then just drop the float bowl, gently tap the float up and down and clean it out the bowl.
Also replace the fuel line from the ptcock to the carb, it's probably deteriorating internally and about to split at the petcock clamp.

 

If the float is sticking due to wear or dirt... it's a sign that the carb could use a good cleaning or rebuild... and at that age, it can't hurt to do a complete carb rebuild while it is off the bike..

There are still a lot of parts available to rebuild the OEM carbs out there... I'd start with an HD Service Manual for your year/model bike (check the part # with an online HD parts vendor or check on eBay), then look for videos if you are not experienced... it's not that hard..

 

Thank you all for the replies. Ran a little Seafoam through the gas tank, hopefully that will get him going until he can do a rebuild, or atleast the float assembly. Going to replace the lines as well, seems like I would have forgotten to do that.

Appreciate all of y'all.

 

Wouldn't hurt to run about 1oz of sea foam / gal . A couple tanks should help clean everything up until you have time to look into the carb .

Check your oils and your brake fluid as well . Make sure the tires are good too .... we'll be here , if you need us ! Ride safe ..

 

There are lots of Keihin parts sources on the web. You could get by with a float needle and seat, plus a fuel bowl gasket and do it with the carb still on the bike. For sure it would be better to pull the carb off for a full cleaning though.