Not ran for a long time, and now leaks fuel?

[oldgreyandslow]

Evening, firstly apologise for only getting back on here when I have a bloody problem!

Anyhow:

My bike has been stored for about 18 months, I ran the fuel dry before storing it by running it then turning the fuel tap off until it stopped. I assumed this would stop any gumming of the carbs. It had worked before.

Anyhow this evening i decided i'd start it up with the idea of getting it sorted, MOT'd, back on the road and enjoy some summer sunshine.

So I did the usual starting procedure, choke on and don't touch the throttle.

After a while it fired but didn't catch, it kept dying. I kept trying and with a bit of throttle managed to keep it running at about 5k, it sounded a bit limp and there was a lot of steam/smoke out of the exhaust which I sort of expected. However it still wouldn't idle and then I noticed a fairly large puddle of petrol all over the bloody garage floor.

I assume its probably one of the carb floats that's stuck.

Does that sound probable?

I removed the rear spark plugs to see if they were wet, they didn't seem too bad, I hope I haven't ruined the plugs as well.

Is it possible to check the floats with the carbs on the bike or is it a removal job?

If I remember last time a good few years ago when I had the carbs off it was a right saga getting them back on again.

Any thoughts/advice welcome.

Ta

[richyrd5]

yes,carbs off i rekon,or fuel tap/vacuum pipe i would check as well....you cant check floats while carbs on bike!!

[oldgreyandslow]

Thanks. Looks like its carbs off - Fk it.

A while back someone suggested using RVF carb rubbers instead of the VFR ones, I see David Silver has them but different ones for front and rears, may get a set just in case

Cheers

[NTG999]

As above, I would definitely check if leak from fuel tap, I've had 2 NC24s and they both have leaked from the fuel tap after being stood and tap moved. After several hours they have stopped leaking - must be that the rubbers swell back up

[Neosophist]

Thanks. Looks like its carbs off - Fk it.

A while back someone suggested using RVF carb rubbers instead of the VFR ones, I see David Silver has them but different ones for front and rears, may get a set just in case

Cheers

if your float is stuck down and letting the carb overflow heres an old mechanics tip,

use a logn handled screwdriver, handle end and tap the float bowls pretty hard one by one and it might often jolt the stuck float free.

used that tip many times on laid u bikes and never had to strip carbs and had no further issues.

trying to disloge float bowl not breka carbs though :) hard but not killing...