Carb and Fuel line Woes on the Special!

     My bike has been on the lift for a few weeks while I had surgery. I was in the shop last week and went to remove it from the lift and gas poured from the air filter.    Replaced the petcock a couple of months ago with the stock unit I found on line as new old stock. Vacuum line was dry when I removed the carb. The old petcock was leaking. I had changed the jets in the carb a couple of times to see if I could get improved performance but the bike is an 86, little different from the norm. Problem started after last attempt. Leak is with the bike sitting upright on the lift and strapped down and has not been cranked in a couple of weeks. I had the bike either on the lift or on jack stands for 2 months to work on my kick stand setup.

Doesn't take log to strip it down now.

 

  After some discussion with the guys on the Savage Forum I replaced the petcock with a raptor petcock closed of the vacuum port with a cap.

OEM Petcock that I installed a few weeks ago.

 



 

After draining the tank I removed the two bolts holding the petcock in place.

 

Slid the old petcock out.

 

 

New Raptor petcock.  Ordered this off of ebay and had it the next day. 

$9.25 and free shipping!

Turns out the vendor was in Macon, GA.

 

 

Reverse procedure, slide in........

 

 

Replace bolts. 

 

 

 

3/8's vacuum cap.

 

 

Slipped onto the vacuum line port to seal it off.

 

 

Reinstalled.

 

 

New fuel line.

 

 

After reassembling I turned on the fuel and cranked the bike.   Same leak but worse.

 

 Then I removed the float, float valve needle, and the needle valve body. There was a little debris on the screen in the body. I cleaned it checked the o ring and reinstalled.  

 

 

Magnifier I picked up at the Dollar Store.  Great for reading the imprints on jets.

 

 

Then I put some fuel in a cup and checked the float to make sure it wasn't leaking. It seemed to be fine as did the tip on the needle valve. I put all this back together and placed a shot section of fuel line I had left over on the fuel port.

    I proceeded to blow air through the valve while I gently closed the valve with the float. Then I slightly bent the tang on the float arm until it seemed to seal properly. I reassembled the the carb and reinstalled it.

 Turning on the fuel the leak seemed to be corrected. I went ahead and started the bike and let it run a little. Seems to have solved the problem. I may have inadvertently bent the tang down when I was fooling with the carb jetting.
   I will have to change the oil and the oil filter but I needed to do that anyway. I probably have some fuel in the crank case due to the extent of the fuel leak.   I also have a new set of gaskets for the bike because there are a few leaks on the engine. I really need to tackle that. The first time may be pretty slow. The bike being an 86 needs a lot of attention. Cables, housings, brake lines, and so forth. Little things like this teach you so much if you take the time to work through them.