Wont Start after carb adj.

[Oconner]

The bike was running good but the left carb was leaking gas. I finally got tired of turning off the petcock at every stop so I put in new floats, gasket and float needle. The leak stopped!! but the bike ran like doo doo for about a 1/4 mile then just quit and would not start back up. Walked her home, heavy little bike! Checked bowls they are filling, no air leaks as far as I can tell. Battery fully charged. Checked spark plugs no fouling looked good and were replaced about 1000miles ago. What should I be doing next?

[Barry]

New floats likely means a new operational fuel level compared with the old floats which means a weaker mixture. You may need to re-tune the idle settings but I guess you have to start by removing the bowls to check fuel levels. My new floats were so light weight and buoyant I had to reset them a little above parallel to get an appropriate fuel level and the bike ran better after that.

[montmil]

In your case, you know where to look for a resolution as the Bing floats were the last service you did. Some of us ain't that lucky!

As the engine shut down completely, that makes me wonder if there was any fuel being drawn into the carbs. Often, one jug will quit and you limp home on one cylinder but this is not the case

Pull the bowls, turn on the fuel tap - you did turn on the gas before the test ride? - and note if fuel passes. Raise the float and confirm it shuts off fuel, then drop the float again. Confirm that the gaskets have not interfered with the float ops. Check both float needles for freedom of movement. Are the needles correctly fitted to the small wire bales?

You might pull the spark plugs and dribble in a little prime gas. If the engine starts up and briefly runs, than you'll pretty well confirm there's something amiss with the carbs.

Both side quit running? That's a new one.

[Tony Smith]

Both side quit running? That's a new one.

Two weekends ago my R65 cut out so suddenly I was convinced it was electrical. Then it started running again, but would only take part throttle.

Smelt like incipient ICU failure to me (again) so I unhappily set course for home at a very slow speed.

Halfway down the rang I had a thought and undid the fuel cap a turn or so and immediately the rough running cleared itself up. Once I got to the flat lands I ran a sustained 80mph for about 10 miles with no problems at all.

Guess I must have had those float levels set damm near the same so that both carbs ran out of fuel simultaneously.

The next question is how to clear a clogged fuel cap vent?

[georgesgiralt]

Tony, you can't clean it.
The vent in built into the cap and has a membrane to open and close it. This rubber (sort of rubber) becomes thick and is very hard in cold weather. This is why my R65 runs rough in winter. If I win at the lottery, I'll buy a new tank cap ;-)

[slickster]

Hi all have finished install of reworked heads on my 84 r65, was runnning ok then left carb over flowed, stopped engine, dropped left bowl, tried to adjust float, now no fuel to left carb.  Right carb starts and runs good.  left bowl will not fill, no matter what I do whats up with that.  I put fuel in bowl left side runs.  But bowl not fill on its own.  Slickster

[montmil]

If there is no fuel at all entering the float bowl, you have debris of some sort blocking flow. Follow the fuel from the tank, fuel lines down to the float needle and seat.

With float bowl off and floats hanging free, do you get fuel when you turn on the tap?