Gary_in_NJ wrote on 10/21/16 at 05:44:42:





I had an old Jetta back in the 80s with a clogged catalytic converter.  The car smelled like a big electrical fire!  

The reality is that none of us know what the real issue is and we won't know until the OP figures it out.  Sure, someone will be "right" but we're all just making educated guesses at this point.

I normally go to the last place I (or the OP) was mucking around (the carb) and rule that out first.  

Update... checked the coil, 4.8 ohms on the primary side and 22,000 on the secondary.  So that's not it.  Tore the carb apart, replace the needle cause the other one was slightly bent.  Put a new filter on the float valve housing, cause I left it off the last time I ventured into the carb.  replaced a few other things that came with a complete rebuild kit.  put it all back together, started her up, she ran fine for 12 seconds, then died.  

First thing I did was to check the spark.  Pulled the plug wire, put another plug in and plenty of spark.  So that's not it.  OK, now I'm thinking all this engine needs is spark, fuel and air, right?  got spark,  got fuel, I'll check the new K&N air filter.  No idea how it could be clogged, but what the heck, I'll check it.  Then I smelled fuel. Filter was clean but fuel was filling up the filter housing.  WTF??  

Already have a Raptor petcock so that's not it.  Pulled the plug and it's wet.  The only thing I haven't already changed out in the carb is the float and float pin.  Every time I've pulled the carb apart I shake the float and listen for any fuel inside the floats.  Always dry.  They look OK and the pin appears fine.    

I don't think this is part of the original problem, But at this point I'm open to every freaking weird ass thing that could drive me crazy chasing this freaking phantom.  I need an old priest and a young priest.  

Thinking I should buy a motorcycle so I have a motorcycle to ride while I'm working on a motorcycle.  Or, take my 12 gauge and unload it on this cursed bike.  Think I could collect insurance on that?  Claim the bike committed suicide?

A timing light with induction pickup on the plug wire will tell you if you suddenly stop putting spark To the plug.
And that is what im thinking is happening.

Thanks for the float height info Batman.  This is the second time the carb flooded like this since I changed the petcock to a Raptor a couple months ago.  So that takes the petcock out of this equation.  Other carb parts have either been swapped out or cleaned and I might have buggered the floats up in one of the previous tear downs.  It'll be another week before I'll have time to rip into it again.  I'm not giving up, yet.

In yesterdays tear down I did notice the negative wire to the coil (black & white), which runs directly to the battery negative post cable, was merely crimped in with the battery cable and poorly done.  Lots of loose strands.  So I soldered it all together into a new fitting.  Hoping that was the cause of the occasional mystery start-run-die problem.  Which started this whole thread.  

When it died yesterday the first thing I thought of was a safety switch might be messing with me.  So I pulled the plug wire, inserted another plug and had plenty of spark.  Then put the plug wire back on the inserted plug and no start.  That's when I noticed the flooding issue.  Pulled the plug, which is brand new, and it was dripping wet.  

Perhaps this whole mystery was caused by off kilter floats  

       

 

   

Have you made sure the o ring in the needle seat is good? If it's not, fuel can go that way and bypass the float needle. I've seen that one a couple times. Doesn't cost anything to check.

Arcreefer wrote on 10/23/16 at 11:07:24:



Yes.

Make sure you aren't trying to run Ethanol. It will overflow and run like crap. I don't know what fuel is like in Ha.?

Glad you got it fixed.  

Floats can be wierd.  By the time you get it out of the carb, the gas has had time to either leak back out or evaporate out of the float.
Best way to check if the float has a leak is to submerge it and watch for bubbles.

See, you can do it.  There's all the help out here you need to get you where you need to be.  But, though it may sound dumb at the time, you need to do everything you're asked to do so that nothing is overlooked.

Congrats...now, go riding.