Why Is My Bike Flooding Out When Hot Out?
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2007 7:19 pm
Here's something to challenge you all and let's see if any of you can figure it out!
Yesterday I was out exploring with my bud, Danno, and I was riding my old '87 Honda XL600R, when it suddenly started to idle rough and would die. It was hotter than heck out and Danno and I were idling around slowly trying to find a particular trail. I did the usual big-thumper drill of cleaning out the cylinder by kicking through 10 times with the throttle wide open and the compression release pulled in. After that I would kick through like normal and no throttle (which normally it starts right up and purrs) and it started, then faltered again. What the ???? I tried cleaning it out again with the usual drill and noticed that fuel was dripping fairly well out the carb overflow tubes.
I figured that I must've gotten some crud in the fuel lines down to the carb float bowl and it was blocking the float tang (even though I'm running an in-line fuel filter and I drain the float bowl after every ride), so I got out a straight blade and drained the carb bowl. After that, I kicked her over and she started up, but then again started to run rough and gas was flowing out the overflow tubes again, plus was even starting to drip out the air-filter box drain tube(!). I kept trying to start it and it would even backfire through the airbox.
Another hint is that it was NOT dirt in the carb or a bad float-bowl tang. It has the stock tank (which was 3/4 full and a one-way vent breather line in the gas cap) Before I post the answer, and for another hint, here is a pic of the bike and no more hints.
So can you figure it out with those details?
Danno: Don't give it away!
-Tom
Yesterday I was out exploring with my bud, Danno, and I was riding my old '87 Honda XL600R, when it suddenly started to idle rough and would die. It was hotter than heck out and Danno and I were idling around slowly trying to find a particular trail. I did the usual big-thumper drill of cleaning out the cylinder by kicking through 10 times with the throttle wide open and the compression release pulled in. After that I would kick through like normal and no throttle (which normally it starts right up and purrs) and it started, then faltered again. What the ???? I tried cleaning it out again with the usual drill and noticed that fuel was dripping fairly well out the carb overflow tubes.
I figured that I must've gotten some crud in the fuel lines down to the carb float bowl and it was blocking the float tang (even though I'm running an in-line fuel filter and I drain the float bowl after every ride), so I got out a straight blade and drained the carb bowl. After that, I kicked her over and she started up, but then again started to run rough and gas was flowing out the overflow tubes again, plus was even starting to drip out the air-filter box drain tube(!). I kept trying to start it and it would even backfire through the airbox.
Another hint is that it was NOT dirt in the carb or a bad float-bowl tang. It has the stock tank (which was 3/4 full and a one-way vent breather line in the gas cap) Before I post the answer, and for another hint, here is a pic of the bike and no more hints.
So can you figure it out with those details?
Danno: Don't give it away!
-Tom