[glow=red,2,300]But why the leaking out of the vent lines? (how do you pull a quote out in the blue text box?) [/glow]

I had several fuel issues with my 98 Savage.  I bought it in 2004, after it sat for several years.  It still had tags on it that expired in 99.  So my story is not typical of one that's ridden regularly.

I had the petc0ck problem, described in an earlier post.  fixed that.  Also had a float headache with my Savage.  The float height was ok, the rubber float needle tip looked good, but the o-ring around the brass valve was in bad shape.  "That's it", I thought.  I replaced it with an o-ring from my Holley parts box, but the bike still flooded.  

I started increasing the float height (distance from the carb body gasket seat), and finally found a spot where it quit flooding with the float nearly 2" down from the gasket unassembled - right against the stop for the maximum float travel.  Can't go any further than that without cutting the brass float.  It worked great, no flooding, but it was not really something I was proud of.  I was compressing the spring in the needle tip all the way for the valve to work.

When I took the bike apart for painting and fixing the cap/plug oil leak, I bit the bullet and bought a new needle valve assembly from a New Zealand eBay member ($18 I think).  When the new one arrived, i compared it to the old one.  The spring in the spring-loaded needle was waaaaaay stronger in the new one.  The new one works at the correct float height - about 1.1 inch measured with my dial caliper depth guage, just like the manual says it's supposed to.

I can only figure the spring in my needle went weak (hard to believe, but possible), or a previous wrencher put the wrong assembly in.  But I'm happy now.

Savage_Greg wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:02:


Thanks for the quote tip!  

I'm with you - if the diaphragm is not leaking fuel to the intake, there's only one other way for the fuel to get in.

I had checked my float, too, several times.  I even took the float bowl off, turned on the gas, and worked the float to see where the fuel actually stopped coming out.  I watched the float valve cut off fuel flow at about horizontal.  Of course there were still drips, but I thought that was from all the parts being wet with fuel.

When I played with the float level and it finally stopped flooding at an unreasonable float height, that got me thinking the spring was not strong enough anymore to adequately close off the flow against the vibration with the bike running.  Replacing it made the problem go away.

I would have lost money betting the Suzuki float valve was good.  

You know what that frustration is like, I know everybody's been there.  I thought I was an educated guy.  I'm a physicist by education and engineer by trade.  I've been working on old cars for years.  I would have lost money betting the Suzuki float valve was good.  

The more I learn, the more I don't know.

When You take a look at the Fuel valve- it consists of 2 aluminum parts and the diaphragm is inbetween. The smaller  Al  part is in the back and the vac. hose is attachet to it. The spring is between  this Alum. part and the diaphragm. In Your case probably the diaphragm is stuck to the metal part and You are taking it out like one whole piece. If You pull it apart You will probably find the spring.

slavy wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:02:

I found it.  Thanks for the info, Slavy.

My problem's finally resolved.  I ordered a new fuel valve assembly from ronayers.com and installed it a couple of days ago.  The bike's running fine with no more problems of running rough and stalling out.  Also, the "fuel-flow-out-of-the-vent-tube" problem has also been corrected.  I still don't know why that happened.  ???  Now... if it would stop raining enough to get a decent ride in...

sluggo wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:03:


Believe it or not, I had that happen with my old Westfalia VW camper.  With the camper's gas tank physically located above the engine, VW used electronic fuel shut-off valves on each of the carbs to turn off the gas when the engine is off.  

Something malfunctioned in this system at close zero degrees in northern Vermont, and I ended up with the engine filled with gas all the way to the top of the dipstick....the entire crankcase, washed all the bearings clean, and locked the engine solid.

I must have de-activated the email feature, sorry about that.  I'm catching up on the reading....

That needle valve drove me nuts till I just broke down & replaced it with a new one and the flooding problem disappeared.  

Of course, I had already converted the petc0ck to manual (on/off/reserve) by that time and eliminated the fuel in the vac hose.

Please send an old petc0ck if you have one.