Stupid move, carb flooding, staring cows

[Tekime]

Took a ride up to Mechanic Falls, ME yesterday to have a look at the moto parts warehouse. Made it five minutes before close but they let me browse for a while. Thousands of parts, but the dude in charge said FJ1200 parts were rares and get top dollar.

Anyway, heading home I stopped for gas and a quick burger. Filled the tank, got some food, then went to the back corner of the parking lot to snack and enjoy the sun. While maneuvering into a spot at walking speed, handlebars at full turn, I catch a glimpse through the trees of a small pack of cows, all staring curiously back at me through the branches. In this brief moment of distraction (who wouldn't be distracted by the native majestic forest cows of Maine), a sneaky patch of loose sand snuck right up under my foot, I slipped, and lost my balance just long enough for the bike to slooooowly tip over. This wasn't my first rodeo - shortly after getting my Suzuki GS500F I pulled the exact same move on a completely different patch of dirt in a completely different parking lot. Or at least, I assume it was a different patch of dirt, but I can never be sure.

Strange thing was, after easing the bike down and standing up, I took the obligatory glance around to see who was watching. A few customers getting gas glanced over, a guy nearby ripped a bag of chips open and leaned up against his car, also staring (probably looking forward to my skinny ass struggling to get the bike up).. BUT as I glance back through the trees I realize.. NO COWS. Now, I'm not entirely insane, and there are a lot of cows in that area, but I also got a bit of a chill down my spine, because cows just DON'T MOVE THAT FAST. Either my grandma passed down her dementia and it's setting in early, these are some very fast cows, or there is a herd of ghost cows haunting me.

All silliness aside, I hauled the old FJ up like a man, it started right up, but I let it sit for a while as I ate. After my meal, it struggled to start and rode extremely rough, but after 5-10 minutes it was back to its old self. Or so I thought --

After parking it for 4-5 hours, I returned to find a pool of gas under the bike. Immediately clamped the fuel line off, cleaned up what I could, and did some reading on fjowners and Google. I ended up pulling the tank, carbs, airbox, spark plugs, pretty sure there was fuel in the case (I could smell it on the plugs strongly), but a few cranks with the plugs out I didn't see anything. Didn't want to blow up my engine so I did an oil flush/change, new oil filter, cleaned/oiled the air filter, checked over the carbs and gave them a few good whacks with a block of wood. Put it all back together today and it seems to be running smooth with no leaks, but we'll find out for sure in the morning.

From what I gather, either the floats or needle got stuck open in one or more of the carbs, carbs overflowed, spit gas all over the place and dumped fuel into my motor. Makes sense, but I'm also wondering now if this is a common issue when an FJ goes down or is a sign of dirty carbs. It does make me a bit nervous about taking it to the track, but I'm hoping it's not a big issue.

Carb rebuild is on the list now, they looked pretty clean but after tires/valves/etc I wanted to hit them thoroughly anyway.

Has anybody fitted a manual fuel cutoff to the fuel line? Would be a nice convenience/safety feature.

Sorry, long and pointless post, just wanted to share my experience for anyone else with gas leak problems or who has also been visited by the staring cows. Take heed, don't look at them, it's a trick!

[Mark Olson]

Your carbs are dirty ... junk in the bottom of the fuel bowls got stirred up on the tip over. Also gas tank as well.

open the drain screws on the bowls and flush out the debris ... you can speed this up by removing the top of each carb while still on the bike and pulling the slides out. this allows you to shoot carb cleaner with the tube directly where the needle goes into the main and flush out the bowls without removing them.

Of couse it would be best to remove and clean the carbs fully but if you don't have the time right now this will get you by until then.

Riding the fj over a couple of rough bumps or over a curb will jostle the floats enough to reseat them . However if the overflow comes back you gotta pull and clean the carbs.

This advise is all firsthand knowledge and not hear-say.

[Tekime]

Excellent advise, thank you. I'll flush them for now then do a full clean/rebuild & new screws in a few weeks.

[FJmonkey]

Your FJ already has 2 fuel cut-offs 1 in the fuel pump and 1 in the petcock. For the petcock you will need an 8MM open end wrench for the square stud that sticks out to the left. A 90 degree turn and the petcock will not flow fuel. As long as the pump check valve is working all that can leak out is sitting in the carbs. Next time you have the tank off disconnect the fuel line at the pump that feeds the carbs. If fuel leaks out without stopping then you have a bad check-valve in the pump.

I also had a zero speed, controlled tip over on my '89. It leaked fuel after the tip over. I drained the 4 bowls. At the next start up the fresh fuel flushed out any crap stuck in the float needles and it has not leaked since. 

[weymouth399]

We have shop/drink night on Wednesday nights in Topsham, 5-9.  2- or 3 factory trained Yamaha techs here most of the time. If you get a chance stop buy, more Fj crap here than you've ever seen in one spot. We are very good with carbs keep everything in stk to rebuild.
Be cool to see a few local fjs check out different bikes.


Bob w

[Picopower]

set a side a few days for a carb clean and replace a few parts. New needle and seats, check diaghrams for
Rips and patch with liquid rubber, I'm cheap. All the info is on line, here at fj owners. People with much more
experience than I will help.