I've been chasing a flooding, stumbling, non running issue since I purchased this bike.  Its an '07 Boulevard S40 with 1600 miles on it.  I was told the carb needed to be rebuilt.  Taking it apart, I found the main jet slightly gummed up, and the pilot jet clogged.

After putting everything back together, it didn't seem to help, and I posted this: http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1405709175

Well its been a while and I finally had a chance to pull everything back apart.  I went through everything on the carb, cleaning it all again.  I put carb cleaner into the fuel line and held the float up thinking the needle valve maybe was leaking.  Nothing came out until lowering the floats enough that valve lowered.  I put the floats in a bowl of warm water looking for bubbles thinking maybe I had a bad float, but they seam ok.

Some suggested previously that the petcock could be an issue.  I've tried removing the vacuum line last time and there wasn't any fuel in it.  Also, I removed it from the carb itself and capped the line/carb inlet.  Running it on PRI the bike still acted the same.

I found the air cleaner box full of fuel/oil today when I went to install the freshly cleaned carb.  I pulled the little plug/cap at the bottom of the box and let it all drain out.

Long story short, after putting everything back together today, the bike fired right up, and ran great for about a 1/4 mile.  Then it shut off and wouldn't restart.  The long black drain tube that runs to the bottom of the bike, about 4 inches off the ground was full of oily fuel.  I haven't pulled the air filter box apart yet but Im sure its full again, as its acting just like it did before.

Anyone have any ideas before I decide to just burn this darn thing!  

I agree with bot and I'll add a few more...

What size jets?
Do you have stock exhaust and intake?

White spacer should be .100 to .110 tall and sits on top of the needle.

No, you cannot say you don't have a bad stock vac petcock.

From what you describe, you likely HAVE a bad stock vac petcock.

Before you waste your time and money chasing everything else under the sun, pay the $26 and get a Raptor petcock and put it on the bike.

After you have been running the Raptor for a week, the remaining few symptoms can be chased with some assurance -- BUT UNTIL YOU GET A RAPTOR you may be chasing butterflies and neither you nor we will be able to separate reality from butterflies when you go doing it.

Key point -- gas in the air box.

Comes from a bad vac petcock or a stuck float valve (but you took your bowl apart, right?   Float and valve were operating correctly)

What remains is a bad stock vac petcock .....

94camroz28 wrote on 07/27/14 at 16:39:00:


I think you're right. The float/needle valve doesn't seem to be shutting off the fuel supply when the bowl is full. But then, changing to a Raptor 660 petcock still might be a good idea.

I'm thinking since it ran OK for a little while after you cleaned the carburetor, it may be dirty again. Might be small bits of rust & trash in the tank. Drain some gas into a clean jar and see if it looks clean. Might  be time to add an inline gas filter.

I hope that does it for you. I can't even imagine a way for oil to get into the air box. But then, I've never had mine apart.

Have you changed the fuel line from the carb to the petcock? The new fuels eat away at rubber hoses and "could" be sending little pieces to get into the needle and seat.  If you haven't swapped over to a raptor petcock, the major advantage I found, second to a trouble free bike, is that the tank comes off so much easier. With the old petcock, not sure if it was stock or not, I had to drain the tank and remove the petcock.  With the raptor. As long as it's turned off, the tank comes off as if it wasn't there.

Wishing you the best.

I'm always curious, what state are you in?

Yeah those petcocks are problems I was riding few days ago and suddenly the bike start to act strange. I did drive home on prime. Next day I removed the fuel line so I could remove the petcock. Did only drain 10cc gas
I had drive with empty tank
So the factory petcock from 1993 is still working just fine.