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Mully

Carb drain leak

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Hello again 

I'm working on a 04 fortrax 350FM and the petrol is leaking out the drain. I cleaned out the bowl and replaced the float needle valve. I set carb up on the bench and filled with petrol and about 1 in 3 tests leak. I shaped up the float to put more pressure on the needle valve but no improvement.  Any ideas?

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Hi Misterclean

Do you mean poilish the brass seat down where the needle valve sits?  I have copper grease would that Do the job?

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The manual says to look carefully for and avoid scratches.

the floats should be nonadjustable.

i would use a cotton swab wetted with carb cleaner to ensure the seat is clean.

did you use a Honda float valve?

careful! Those seats are not replaceable!

 

it is possible you need a new float.

I recommend Honda, Shindy or K&L float valves.

Edited by Goober

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Yes I used a honda valve. I didn't think anything could go wrong with the float? 

I look it over a it seemed ok. Do the floats give trouble? Great to get the feedback 👍

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What’s the history? Been sitting a long time?

oxidation on that brass seat. Floats can deform after sitting a long time but not usually 

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Other thing that will cause leak:

you didn’t use a rebuild kit. Are you sure the carb bowl seal and drain screw seal aren’t leaking? If the overflow stem into bowl is cracked that will also cause leak out carb drain 

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Bike is in regular use. I drained the carb a few times using the drain screw to see if it was working OK and all appeared ok draining stopped when screw tightened.

I will take a close look at overflow stem when I'm back at it .

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18 hours ago, Mully said:

Hi Misterclean

Do you mean poilish the brass seat down where the needle valve sits?  I have copper grease would that Do the job?

Yes,  polish the brass. Look down in the seat with a  right light and magnifying glass and look for something wrong. O have seen the taper wear out on the seat. My fix for that was to drill the hole out with the next size drill bit which narrowed the seat area allowing for greater psi on the valve.

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A result.  I used a cotton bud and some copper grease to polish out the seat. Irs holding fine now. Thanks for everything Misterclean 20220523_115213.jpg

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A result.  I used a cotton bud and some copper grease to polish out the seat. Irs holding fine now. Thanks for everything Misterclean 20220523_115213.jpg

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I never knew about copper grease , I have some copper based anti-seize , wonder if that is close to the same thing ------ 

 

Toothpaste on a swab will also work 

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I spoke too soon, fault returned when I put carb in bike and took it for a spin. After it was sitting for a few minutes it started to drain again.  I drilled out the hole in the seat like Misterclean suggested and I'm just back from a test spin and its holding so far. Going to keep a eye on it . I'll but up a update later. 🤞. Going for tea


20220523_115213.jpg

16533127416005164955831023361651.jpg

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Sweet iced tea right?

 

Hope you can figure it out. Tbose 350 rancher carbs are notorious for leaking and can be very frustrating to fix

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Just a little milk and no sugar thanks. 

Anyway it appears to be sorted this time.  The drill do the trick.  I polished it again after drilling incase there was a burr left. Test it in the bike with a full tank a number of times and it perfect.  

Thanks everyone. 

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Is the tank , petcock and inside of the fuel hoses clean ???      No grains of dried up gasoline crystals or algae   ???   

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I looked into tank with light and appears ok but hard to be sure. There seems to be a few specks shining back at me. The carb is OK at present.  If it leaks again I better clean out tank. How should I go about cleaning tank? What would you use?

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If you find any trash in the tank then I would try and take the petcock out , but if the bolts are frozen  , then I might not , cause the nuts are embedded in the plastic of the tank and can spin and not come out causing problems, there is a screen (# 2 in the print ) inside of  the tank over the petcock tube , I have seen them get all cracked up  -----   

 

image.png

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That looks OK from what I can see . No sign of any leaks now so I'm going to leave it alone. 

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9 hours ago, Mully said:

Just a little milk and no sugar thanks. 

Anyway it appears to be sorted this time.  The drill do the trick.  I polished it again after drilling incase there was a burr left. Test it in the bike with a full tank a number of times and it perfect.  

Thanks everyone. 

Great news! It's a good feeling when perseverance wins isn't it.

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