Hi folks
I thought I'd post this here, as this could happen to just about any bike. Here is the story.
Yesterday I was working on getting the 400 Bandit I bought for my daughter, up and running.
I had done a very complete carb teardown and rebuild, with a Factory Pro kit, K&N filter, etc. I was kind of excited because when I bought it, it barely ran.
The fellow I bought it from, said the carbs were really cold blooded. I could tell that wasn't the only issue.
So, I hooked up my aux. gas tank, turned the key, and hoped for the best. While cranking away, I noticed fuel leaking out of the carbs. So I stopped cranking and tried to see if I could do a quick look see to spot the leak. Damn, it looked like it was coming from eveywhere. The WTFs were flying! I checked every logical thing I could think of to see what the heck was causing the leak. I was getting PO'd at myself for not being more thorough with the carbs. So, with much head scratching, I narrowed it down to the float needles not having a good seal. I did this using some fuel hose, Mickey Moused so I could blow on the float needle assembly. I cleaned the needle seats with Q-tips and carb cleaner, and they still weren't seating properly. More WTFs! I got out my 10x eye loupe, and started looking closely,,,,, and WHAM, the problem jumped in my face, and it wasn't my fault. I had purchased a Keyster carb kit for that bike. All that was in it, was new carb gaskets, and new float needles. Well, those float needles had the little clips on them. When the floats lifted, those clips were preventing the needles from seating completely. Sun of a Beach!! Either they were an incorrect needle {too short?}, or the tolerance for the clip groove was way off. I took the clips off and checked with my eye loupe again. You could visibly see the clip groove, go below the surface of the needle seat body. I re-did the blow test, and Voila', a good seal. The groove was out of position enough, that when I rechecked the float heights, they were too low. I'm running it without the clips, as I've seen plenty of carbs work fine, that never had them. If I have any fuel supply problems, I'll know enough now, to check to see if running clipless was the cause. I got it running, synched the carbs, and she purrs like the little kitten that she is. I figured I'd post this just in case any of you folks run up against this, and pull some hair out wondering,,,, what the HECK is going on. Next up will be finalizing the jetting. That will be a bit because of a bunch of other little things I have to attend to first. Whew!
Topic: Float needle issue (Read 2502 times)