PREFACE: I tinker with my Harley, and this is the first time I have had to wrench on my wife's Kaw.
We have a 2003 500...about 2200 miles.
The other day, I had a hard time starting it, and only after holding the throttle open, did it start.
She idled rough and wasn't even up for 1 minute when the gas started pissing out.
after investigation, I found the gas was coming out of the airbox (?)

I tried again the next day(to give her time to dryout)...same thing.

I have since removed, dimantled,and cleaned the carbs, also I removed the airbox.
The filter was soaked, and there was gas and some oil in the box.
I want to put her back together and see if she fires up and runs the way she should, but would like some advice as to what else should be looked at before doing this...Is ther anything?

Thanks

 

There have been some other bikes with similar problems - I think they posted in the General Tech section - you might want to check in that section to see if anyone has found anything to fix the problem. Other than that, I can't offer much help. Good luck fixing it - hope your wife is back on the road soon!!!!

 

hi, i just bought a 2000 vulcan 500 from my uncle. It has been sitting for a year in his garage, i changed the oil and charged the battery. I started it up for a little while then i noticed gas leaking so i shut it down and checked the lines. One line going into the top of the carb on the shifter side was not connected and gas was coming out the nipple on top, i put the on it and tried to start it up again. it did not start the second time, after i tried to start it i noticed gas was leaking from it again. i traced it to the hose i just put back on, it goes from the top of the carb to the left side of the seat and ends right by the starter celenoid. i plugged that hose to see if it leaked anymore and noticed it continued to leak what seemed like down the side of the airbox right below the celenoid. i looked in the general forum to no avail, any help would be appreciated

btw: is the hose off the top of the carb supposed to just end right above the starter celenoid or am i missing something?

 

sounds like maybe the float is sticking. Sometimes if your bike leans over a lot when on it's kickstand the floats won't shut off the fuel supply, and you can get a bit of gas leakage.

 

thank you for the very speedy responce, i will check that tommarow and post if it worked. could you tell me where it was leaking from? it was still coming out when i plugged the hose

also while im thinking about it, when i changed the oil, it was VERY thin and had a extreme smell of gas, could that be from sitting for so long? and if possible tell me why, im new to motorcycles (this being my first) and this forum seems very knowledgable

 

Are you sure the clamp on the hose is tight? It almost sounds like the fuel line is too big, or has a split if it's the line that keeps leaking.

 

Sounds like maybe you have a float problem too. Time to taer down the carbs and give them a good cleaning.

 

k i will try that today

can someone tell me if the hose coming out of the T-connector between the top of the two carbs is the overflow hose and why would it end right above my starter celenoid

 

Carbs out! now im ready to start cleaning it. my question now is do i need a carb rebuild kit? or can i clean it without replacing the o-rings? any site or forum you can reference me to as to how to clean it and fix the floats would be greatly appreciated.

 

good stuff, i cleaned out the carb, which looked almost brand new and sprayed it all down with carb cleaner, put it back on and ran it for about 15 min with no gas leak! but now it seems to idle high and fluxuates, because i have no tach i cannot tell how high it is idling so i was wondering how to fix this using the two throttle cables. should i loosen the accelerator or tighten the decelerator?

btw thanks for the help on the carb problem guys