Flooded Bandit | GTAMotorcycle.com

Flooded Bandit

M

Merkid

Well-known member
So this is weird.

I took the new (old) Bandit in for a Safety Certification so I can change the ownership. My appointment was set for 9am yesterday but the roads became covered from the hail storm that came thru an hour earlier so I lost my time slot. Irrespective, I rode the bike carefully for the 3 km distance at about 10am. So all good.

I got a call from the mechanic later in the afternoon who told me the bike checked out fine but that he tried to start it and it flooded. No big deal so I got dropped off by my wife at the shop to pay the bill and get it home. Well it cranked over but would not start and the smell of fuel was obvious so it remained badly flooded. I was worried that the exhaust was filling with raw fuel so I stopped cranking it over. This was near their 6pm closing time so the bike stayed in the shop overnight.

So I am heading over there this morning with my tool box to yank the plugs out to replace them and hopefully fire it up to get it home. I will order up four carb kits and get the carbs apart for rebuild but I still need to ask how it flooded so bad.

Any ideas?
 
Do you store your motorcycle in a heated or freezing cold environment over the winter months?

"I will order up four carb kits"
Highly recommend you service the carbs using the original parts first. All of your problems will be it the lowest part (bottom half) of the carbs. The carburetor float bowl works on the same principal as a toilet tank. Yours is 'possibly' stuck, plugged or leaking past the seals, although that would usually make it spill excess fuel out of an over-flow tube somewhere.
The fuel is atomized by the venturi jets (little brass parts with precision holes drilled in them) that need to be free of dirt or corrosion.. If the fuel level is not correct, the jets can't work, if the jets are plugged the fuel will not atomize sufficiently and you are pushing raw fuel into your engine intake.
If there is water in the bottom of the float bowls, that won't run either because the water won't pass up through the jets, it just prevents the fuel from flowing up through them.
 
Trials said:
Do you store your motorcycle in a heated or freezing cold environment over the winter months?

"I will order up four carb kits"
Highly recommend you service the carbs using the original parts first. All of your problems will be it the lowest part (bottom half) of the carbs. The carburetor float bowl works on the same principal as a toilet tank. Yours is 'possibly' stuck, plugged or leaking past the seals, although that would usually make it spill excess fuel out of an over-flow tube somewhere.
The fuel is atomized by the venturi jets (little brass parts with precision holes drilled in them) that need to be free of dirt or corrosion.. If the fuel level is not correct, the jets can't work, if the jets are plugged the fuel will not atomize sufficiently and you are pushing raw fuel into your engine intake.
If there is water in the bottom of the float bowls, that won't run either because the water won't pass up through the jets, it just prevents the fuel from flowing up through them.
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Check the oil level too. Stuck floats can make a mess. Wasn't this the bike with overfilled oil?

EDIT:
Yes it was the bike with overfilled oil. Be prepared to do a parking lot oil change as you may have diluted, overfilled oil in there again (and not much gas in the tank).
 
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Starting an older bike with carbs is easily messed up. Full choke, do not touch the throttle. Once it fires you will have to reduce the choke by about 50% almost immediately, as the revs will hit 2500-3000. If you don,t do it properly you will either flood it or kill your battery trying. If you are rebuilding the carbs, the only replacements parts you will new are o-rings and possibly the bowl gaskets if they don't come off in one piece. If you look up cycleorings.com you will find a full kit of the o-rings you need for less than $20. There are CV carb rebuilding tutorials on thegsresources.com site. If your not a member there yet, you should signup, it is a wealth of knowledge for those old bikes. Also, you will not find the carb dip they recommend (Berrymans) in Canada. Yamaha sells Yamalube carb cleaner that works great.
 
Own a motorcycle with carburetors? Time to learn how to service carburetors.
Don't want to learn how to service carburetors? Might want to consider a motorcycle that has fuel injection.
 
By the way, did you inspect the air filter and make sure it is not completely stuffed full of mouse nest.
 
I think Bull958 nailed it. The mechanic figures he choked it too much that the plugs fouled up knocking out any possible spark. He's a young guy and admits he has better luck on the FI engines ...lol. He didn't really answer my question as to why he had to start it for the safety inspection.

Yes to Grey Ghost, this is the same bike that had a recent oil change of 4 litres while the crankcase only takes 3.2 l. Luckily, no hydraulic-lock issues.

I got the carbs apart yesterday while we had decent temps, opened them up but found no surprises in there so after cleaning them thruout, bolted them back in place. Someone had them rebuilt as everything seemed new and no broken gaskets. Dumped out the oil and added all semi-synthetic . Opened the air box to wipe it clean and added a K&N filter that I had kept from my older Bandit. Swapped out the fouled plugs and dumped the gas in the tank too. Added Seafom to the fresh fuel for a shake-down run.

It started hard so I figured there was still some crap I had missed but once underway I jumped on the QEW near Mississauga Road and progressively red-lined it in three gears before getting off in Oakville. It bucked and farted but after 5 min smoothed out nicely. Toured the escarpment area for a couple of hours to round out the trip.

Now if runs like an in-line four Suzuki should....(y)

Thanks for the feedback guys, it helped.
 

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When was the valve clearance checked, one symptom of over tight valve clearance is difficulty with cold starting.
 
Interesting on the MTO test drive.

I was told by the last owner that the valves were adjusted a short time ago but having recently opened everything up to access the carbs, I see a lot of dirt and old grease is covering the engine valve cover so I suspect that the bike may never have had the work done. One more job to add to the list of work to do.
 
Want to bet it still has the OEM sludge in the front forks ?
 
Merkid said:
Interesting on the MTO test drive.

I was told by the last owner that the valves were adjusted a short time ago but having recently opened everything up to access the carbs, I see a lot of dirt and old grease is covering the engine valve cover so I suspect that the bike may never have had the work done. One more job to add to the list of work to do.
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Just think, whenever you’re done fixing the bike you’ll at least know what you have.
 
? a motorcycle to ride until the next time it needs fixing.
 
Just a thought. Was the fuel tap turned and left on to Prime instead of On position. This is used when the bike hasn't been ridden for a while to get extra fuel into the carbs as well as the choke.

I have a 2003 with this set up.
 
Yes, Trials was right in that I will need to see what still resides in the forks.

On Brit Biker's question on the fuel petcock, it does have the optional Prime position in addition to the On and Reserve ones. I rode the bike to the Shop in the On position but don't know if the mechanic switched it over to Prime when trying to start it.
 
Prime is just always on. On is vacuum operated. Prime is a problem if left on and you have leaky needles and seats. Then you end up with gas in your crankcase.
 
Merkid said:
...I jumped on the QEW near Mississauga Road and progressively red-lined it in three gears before getting off in Oakville. It bucked and farted but after 5 min smoothed out nicely. Now if runs like an in-line four Suzuki should....(y)
Click to expand...

Italian tune up. Works every time.
 
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