Bandit Alley

MODEL SPECIFIC => SUZUKI BANDIT 250 & 400 => Topic started by: todius on August 19, 2005, 08:47:55 PM

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: todius on August 19, 2005, 08:47:55 PM

Arrrggggghhhh!!!

This lil Bandit will drive a person nutz.  Came home from work to find gas all over my shed/shop/garage/storage floor.  Apparently the float decided to stic on one of the cylinders.  Somehow it managed to just about drain a full tank of gas even though when I pulled the fuel line from the tank, nothing leaked from the petcock (wierd).  

To the point, I hate the float bowl assembly on these carbs.  They are one of the worst I have come across.  Why did they have to make it a huge plastic contraption prone to breaking with not one, but two o-rings.  Why couldn't they have just molded the needle seat into the metal of the carb itself and let the floats move on a rod which would be held on by the carb itself!!  Uggghhh.... what a PITA.

 :soapbox:

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: interfuse on August 20, 2005, 12:27:56 AM

Binderdundat.

First thing I'd look into is your fuel tap. Unless you left it on prime, no gas should leave the tank when the bike is off. It's either broken, or gummed up and sticking open.

About the carb gas leak, it might also be a crusty o-ring.

Oh, and be sure to change your oil. Chances are gas has leaked into your crankcase.

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: todius on August 20, 2005, 12:35:12 AM

Ok, the vacuum hose to the petcock was pinched.  Guess it was able to hold a vacuum over the course of the day and cause about 3 gals of gas to drain out.  

I rebuilt the carbs last month new o-rings, etc.  Opened em up again tonight and checked out the floats & float height, everything looked OK.   Dunno why the floats couldn't hold back the gas?? :/  

 Now... how to get the gas fumes out of the shed-rage.  :bomb:


Thanks for the tip about the oil, Interfuse, almost forgot about that!

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: Red01 on August 20, 2005, 01:24:56 AM

Quote from: "todius"

Dunno why the floats couldn't hold back the gas?? :/  

Sounds like a classic case of bad float needle & seat.

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: todius on August 20, 2005, 01:33:50 AM

They didn't look worn when I rebuilt the carbs.  Needle was a perfect cone with no indention... looked like new. Didn't see anything wrong with the seats either, but maybe there's a small cut on it or something I didn't see?

If one of the needles/seats is messed up, that just gives me more ground to gripe about the crappy float system in these carbs.  :roll:

-Brent
--- Tired of removing carbs already ---

Title: More ranting!!!
Post by: Red01 on August 20, 2005, 02:04:51 AM

It's pretty rare, but I've seen it happen once (on a friend's Datsun Roadster)... the floats took on enough fuel internally thru teeny-tiny stress cracks so they couldn't float up high enough to shut the fuel off. You could hear gas sloshing inside them, though. These floats were brass and we managed to coat them in light solder so they wouldn't take on fuel anymore. This was supposed to be a temp fix until he could get new floats, but it worked so well, AFAIK, he never put the new floats in once they finally came over on the slow boat from Japan.