petrol on the floor running shite!

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:51 am

Hi,i got my zxr out of my shed the other day and noticed a strong smell of petrol and a small puddle of petrol on the floor.as i tried to start the bike it was struggling to get going and really spluttering.i took it for a ride but it rode like shite!!! i know nothing about fixing motorbikes but my mate said he'd have a look for me,all he done was rev it to f**k and said that i look in the manual!!!!!!!(cheers mate) i looked on the internet for help and found this forum.i think pretty much everything that can go wrong with the bike is on here and so it was not long before i found other people with this problem.i've put some redex in the petrol and it did ride better so i thought it was sorted but i took it out yesterday and its running shite again.its obviously flooding so the next thing i'm going to do is take the carbs off and give them a blast of carb cleaner and check the float seals.
if anybody thinks this is the right thing to do(or if you dont) can you please let me know as its doin my head right in :smt013

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:11 pm

Hiya mate welcome to the forum. Sounds like your having fun!

I think getting the carbs out and giving them a clean is a good idea. Also check the floats make sure one of them arent punctured and not filling up with fuel. If one of them is punctured then it will flood the carbs out.

It sounds very much like they need a good clean going by the redex sorted things out slightly.

Also, before you take the carbs off have a check of the choke, move the choke lever and you should see a sliding strip of metal at the front of the carbs, it has a large spring attatched to it to pull it back, make sure its not stuck and moves freely. In fact heres a picture, see the large spring on the top left of the carbs, and the strip of metal its attatched to, thats the choke, make sure it moves side to side.

Hope that helps and you get it sorted

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 6:23 pm

thanks for the advice i'll let you know how i get on.another thing i was wondering is can i replace my standard air filter for a k&n one without having to do anything else like dynojet or carb balance.

Post by **diesel** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:47 pm

if you wanna change jets, filter etc you reallt should dyno it or balance the carbs at the very least. sounds to me like u have jets gunged up. if you already didnt know the shelf life of fuel in a tank is about 2 weeks before it starts to break down.

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:44 am

sounds about right dude,my bike was sitting in the shed for about six months!! i did get it serviced before i rode it but i doubt the geezer bothered to clean the carbs out.

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:46 am

Thats more than likely it then, the fuel has gummed up and crystalised!

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:07 pm

cheers dudes,i'll get the carbs off this weekend and see if there all gummed up.dont think i'll bother with the k&n filter,from what i've read on this site the standard one is just as good.

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:50 pm

i've managed to fix it get in!!! took the carbs off and stripped them,blasted carb cleaner through all the holes,there was no gummed up fuel in there but a lot of black toad came running out!! as i took them apart i noticed that the metal bar on top of the carbs(the choke) was all bent out of shape,the bars supposed to run along the top and bend round the corner of the last carb attaching to the the float,because it was bent it was not attached to the float,i dont really know how it all works but all i done was bent it back into shape,attached it to the float,one last spray of carb cleaner,put the carbs back on,put air box back on,put tank on,put petrol in,choke on,fired her up,WOW she's puring like a kitten and ticks over lovely just took if for a quick spin and everything seems fine,at last!!!
i've never done anything mechanical before,and to be honest i've not really got a lot of patience but i cant belive how easy it was to do,if i can do it i recon you could teach a monkey to!!!!!if it was not for this website i'd be still twiddling my thumbs and letting it do my head in :smt013 i'd like to thank everyone who helped to answer my questions(especially rob)
your all bloody decent chaps.

Post by **masterofinsanity** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:59 pm

well done your brave. i've been messin with cars and bikes for 20 odd years and i wont touch carbs!

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 7:08 pm

chees dude,if i knew anything about carbs i probably would not of touched them either!!

RedexRobB · Post by **RedexRobB** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:43 am

glad you got it fixed mate, i love it when you work on a bike spend a bit of time doing something and it fixes it, its so rewarding when it all works out

Thats part of the reason im doing the workshop for this website, things arent that hard if you have a bit of guidance and got plenty of picture to go by, that way its not unfamiliar when you go in!

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 6:37 pm

your right,it is satisfying when you get the job done, i took my bike out today and its running loads better than it was but its still a little bit spluttery at low revs,i had a quick look when i got back and noticed petrol leaking from the fuel tap,as i took the tank off i turned the petrol off but when i lifted the tank off petrol still came out of the tap and it was pissing out proper!! could this have been the problem all along :smt013 is my bike getting too much fuel at low revs and thats why its spluttering a bit?
surely if the petrol tap is off no fuel should come out?

Post by **masterofinsanity** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:36 pm

well........ the fuel tap on my zxr was the same al the pointers were back to front, i wonder if there was a dodgy batch of zxr400s with this problem??

zxrtbone · Post by **zxrtbone** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 10:50 pm

so if the fuel taps knackered would it mean its getting too much petrol in low revs? after 6000 revs it goes like a rocket!!!

Post by **masterofinsanity** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 11:22 pm

i would say it needs dynoing mate, the zxr400 don't go anywhere til you hit 10k revs.