Fuel Leak

[John Luttrell]

Hey guys, been a while, but My bike has sprung a leak on me.  I went out and started it up to push some fresh gas through it and take it for a spin since it was above 40 degrees today and smelled gas.  I got to looking around and the fuel is dripping off the bottom of the left front carb at a pretty good clip; that said the the bike is running great in spite of the leak, so it's not a stuck float.  I suspect one of the main fuel lines has finally been done in by the ethanol in the gas these days, so during the Christmas break I'll rip the carbs off so I can replace the fuel lines. Hoping for some warm weather, my shop isn't heated.  Guess I need to look on bikebandit to see if they still sell the  factory fuel lines.

Update: I just spent some time researching the fuels hoses on Bike Bandit and can't seem to locate them; have any of you been through this and happen to know where to get the factory fuel hoses?

[SkyRide]

Howdy John,

I bought stainless ones from Vince when he was part of V4Market.  He now sells on ebay. Look for ones similar to

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1983-6-HONDA-MAGNA-SABRE-VF-700-750-VF-1100-JOINT-SET-FUEL-TUBES/192026342837

Be careful to get the right set for you bike.

Rick Frankenberger

[TLRam1]

There are a lot of places the leak could be coming from, I think more diagnosis is in order to better pin point the area before you dive in unless you replace a lot of the rubber parts once you have the carbs removed.

[MagnaMan]

I'm with Terry. I'd use a mirror on a stick to take a look at the leak in more detail to make sure you know where it is coming from.

If may be possible that the fuel tubes are leaking. As Rick mentioned you can buy metal replacements (The ones I got from the V4 Market were aluminum. I don't believe they're stainless.) They'll set you back about $80 for a 3rd gen Magna but you have to separate the carbs. Not for the faint of heart I hear. I have a set I'm working on this winter, so we'll see how it goes. Those tubes come with the o-rings.

You can also buy an o-ring set from Billy Carr for all the other rubber that's in your carbs.

As far as the hoses in-between the carbs, a few of them have OEM bends in them so I bought new ones from ronayers.com. I figured since I was separating the carb bodies I would replace those hoses since I don't want to have to do it again.

But then all that work is assuming your fuel crossover tubes are leaking. So give it a closer look. A telescoping mirror and a headlight worked wonders for me. I could see the fuel dripping out of the carb body where the crossover tube was going in.

[John Luttrell]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll do a little more looking with a mirror before I pull the carbs this weekend.

[John Luttrell]

Ok guys, I'm stumped.  I just got around to pulling the carbs on the bike and I can not find any leaks or deteriorated lines what so ever. I even turned the carb bank upside down to make sure the floats were closed, pressurized the the fuel lines with air and sprayed all the fuel lines and tubes with soapy water and they are all leak free.  I still don't think I had a stuck float because the bike was running perfect while it was leaking. At this point I think I'm going to put it back together and see what happens; any of you run into this before?

[John Luttrell]

I put it all back together and there are no leaks and it purrs like a kitten, damned if I know, but one thing for certain is I'll never get that four hours back.

[TLRam1]

That is not unusual, when fuel gets back on the rubber parts it causes them to swell a bit, when they dry out they tend to shrink. Keep your eye on it.