Okay, I just finished the rebuild of the carb on my 08 Shadow Aero with the performance kit. Was feeling good (never a good sign) reinstalling the carb as I took my time, watched the install videos multiple times before doing the removal and rebuild and then watched it as I did the work. So, I reinstalled the carb, checked things twice, took a deep breath and fired her up. After a few tries (and remembering to put gas in the tank), she fired up AND ROARED! Wow, was she loud... for about 5 seconds, and then she died. At that point I smelled gas and heard dripping. As best as I could tell, the carb was full of gas and spewing it out.
So after a few tears I took the carb back off, carefully took it back apart expecting to see something out of wack but nothing (except everything soaked in gas). There's only two possibilities that I"m seeing.
1) Air/fuel mixture screw... it has a washer and o-ring at the bottom of it already. I don't need to reinstall the original washer and o-ring before I install the screw, do I?
2) Float bowl vent hose... mine was attached to a large nipple on the rear cylinder so I reattached it back to it. Should I have capped the nipple and allowed it to vent freely? Suspecting that might be creating a vacuum and causing the bowl to stay wide open.
So hopefully you all can provide some insight as to what might be causing my carb to guzzle gas. Much thanks to anyone able to help.
I love that you're going through these issues right before I'm about to do the same stuff. You're walking so I can run lol! The bowl vent should definitely not be capped. Keep the hose as is. I also put my air mixture screw in without the old pieces. I'm pretty sure that's the right way.
where was the gas leaking from? Like right out of the venturi?
@James Everette I really can't tell, to be honest. It was everywhere. Hopefully my mistake, whatever it was, can keep you from making the same one.
This is my first carb rebuild, so I'm definitely learning lots. How much gas we talkin?
first thought was just float level. The stock float needle was much lighter than the one sent with TJ's rebuild kit. Not sure how exactly this will effect it. But at least make sure it's set right? I gotta wait a few days to start mine up, so maybe I can have more insight by then.
Okay, I see what I did wrong (I'm an idiot). The large nipple at the top of my rear carb went to my air intake, not my float vent. Man, I'm kicking myself for getting in a hurry at the end but pretty sure that I know now what to do. I'll leave that hose to vent and find the hose that vents my float bowl.
So what's the likelihood that I dumped gas into my cylinders and, if so, what's best course of action to prevent any further damage?
So the hose going from the top of my rear cylinder to the original intake... any advise as to what to do with that when going with a velocity stack?
Your crank case breather? You can just run that off to the side and out of the way. It HAS to be there, you don't want to plug it. It drips a little oil sometimes, so it's often just ran to the chain or just off the side somewhere out of the way.
If my stupidity can keep you all from making the same dumb mistakes that I'm kicking myself for then at least I've served some purpose here.
@Rick Orris you need to make sure the old o ring and washer are removed then install the new air fuel mix screw with the new rubber o ring and washer.
the float vent should not be attached to the crankcase bnreather dude,. that is wrong. the bowl vent should just be left open. THAT is why you're puking gas. you need to vent the crankcase breatehr to the ground behind the engine. you were pressurizing your float bowl and also possibly drawing fuel into the crankcase.
you need to open the oil filler cap and smell the oil, if it smells like ga syou7 will need to flush the oil system. drain. toss the filter, install new filter, refill with correct volume of oil. pull all spark plugs, squirt a little bit of pentrating oil or atf or engine oil, and only a litle bit. too much and youll foul the spark plugs. rotate engine by hand a couple dozen times, from the timing inspection cap on the left crankcase cover. re-install spark plugs, reconnect ignition wire and start the bike.
