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gas soaked shoes
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 8:42 pm
by pmonk
Went for a little ride the other day. I was greatly enjoying how smoothe the R90/6 was running. Walked into the house and the wife says "YOU STINK". Mumbled something about yea I really need to replace the old mufflers because they are boogered up where they fit to the head pipes. She says "GETOUT OF THIS HOUSE NOW". Looking down I see my right sock seems to be discolored. Smells like gasoline, Shoes are soaked too. One of the things you have to enjoy about an airhead is dealing with leaking carbs from time to time. Hopefully it is just a little trash between needle and seat and not another set of ethanol ate up floats again.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:09 pm
by Zombie Master
I lost a float bowl and it coated the back wheel with gas, I hit a dew patch, and down I went.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 11:53 pm
by pmonk
ZM, I am fortunate, I got home with all my parts. Fuel can cause a slippery slope, especially diesel
.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:02 am
by Airbear
Doubly fortunate. Mrs Pmonk told you to get out of the house. Go for another ride, after you've jiggled that float.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:57 am
by Slashsevenpig
Don't forget to change your fuel lines. The rubber may be flaking from the inside. Ask me how I know.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:13 pm
by Major Softie
I would suggest you resist the urge to dry your shoes and socks out in front of the fire....
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:43 pm
by jagarra
The last time I had a bit of debris stuck in the needle and seat keeping the float open. I used my handy tire pump which was on board on my bike. Just unhooked the fuel line to the offending carb, put the hose against the hand pump and gave it a couple whacks of air. cleared it nicely without taking the bowls off.
gg
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 12:15 pm
by pmonk
Replaced the float bowl gasket (which had obviously been leaking) and operated the float, needle and seat flushing it several times and put it back together hoping it would just be an easy fix. The gasoline flow did stop when the float was just about level. About to ride a while and do a final balance on the carbs after about a 30 minute ride. If this fixes it great, if not then it's time for new floats even though these aren't very old.
The think that is disgusting is how fast this government mandated ethanol containing slop we are forced to buy absorbs water. The float bowl was sitting about 2/3 full of clear gasoline. 10 minutes later it was so cloudy you could barely see the bottom of the bowl.
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 1:24 pm
by Bamboo812
I had problems with the cloudy gas, too. I don't know where you are located, but here is a listing of some of the ethanol free gas stations in the US and Canada.
http://pure-gas.org/ Note: Don't toss those soaked floats just yet. When I switched back to e-free I had to re-adjust my floats because they began to float higher in the bowl causing fuel starvation at WOT. No problems at all now...
Re: gas soaked shoes
Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2014 7:23 pm
by pmonk
Very few stations located in my area on the Gulf Coast. I use Startron in my boat and will start adding to both my bikes. I couldn't believe how fast the clear gasoline turned milky. We are usually at 80% humidity or higher here along the coast.
The test ride didn't go so well. At about 4.5-5k the bike lost power, Glad I didn't start up over the bridge. Got home ok, pulled the bowl off and YIKES* Where is the main jet that I sprayed carb cleaner through. Found it in the tool tray of course. It ran fine at lower rpms though. So for now the leaking seems to have stopped and carbs are fairly close, close enough until time for valve adjustment anyway.