#1 SRX is poorly....

[Steve Lake]

The old dear has been laid up over the winter (such as it was)... couple of weeks ago I noticed a smell of petrol in the garage, on checking it appeared that #1 was leaking fuel from somewhere...  I was pretty much resigned to the dreaded 'rotten corner' on the tank, but no, it appeared to be from the carbs, or more precisely the float bowls.

so removed the tank the tap and pipery, and the 2 dellorto's...... cleaned them all up and put them on one side for a sunny day when I could wheel the bike out and do some serious fettling.

But..... strangely... bike was still dripping fuel.....  appeared to be round the base of the breather running up to the air box... removed pipe from breather... egg cup full of petrol sploshed out... blimey!!

breather pipe in crankcase full of petrol...  double blimey!!

So, yesterday I wheeled the old dear out, and kicked her over.... 2 foot spout of petrol shot out of breather.... treble blimey!!!

drained crankcase , pretty much full of petrol/oil... removed filter, fuel/oil in there too... disconnected oil cooler and drained that... laid bike on side both ways to make sure I'd got it all clear.

reassembled... new oil & filter... started on second kick... oil bled through almost instantly, let it keep bleeding 'til clean new oil came out.

ran bike at tickover 'til oil temp got to 80c, all seemed ok.

But... No clutch... lever slack as me grans bloomer elastic....  weird, very weird, ... got the book of words out, trying to figure out what might have dropped off/broken.... its as if the clutch has been pulled in and stuck, but putting it into gear, the clutch is definitely fully engaged...

so, cup of tea and ponder, at which point #1 Son turns up, hears my tale of woe, and says... plates have swollen (well, the fibre part) being immersed in fuel.... I suppose this is possible... in any event it'll be laying the bike over and removing the right hand casing to see exactly whats happened....   the floor is open for any other ideas... all welcome.....

[Propellor]

If the clutch is jammed into engaged position I'm going with your lad. The petrol has attacked the clutch plates.

What confuses rho (assuming I've understood right) is why the lever is slack. You'd expect a slack lever with a disengaged clutch wouldn't you?

[SteveC#222]

Oooo...sounds nasty...wonder if it has damaged the bearings too ( sorry to be a miserable git). sounds like a good inspection is on the cards. Re the slack lever - I suppose if the plates have expanded in the basket then the springs will have been stretched too so it would be like having the lever pulled in so when you actually pulled the lever in it would be slack?...I'm no engineer.

Root of the trouble sounds like a seal/O ring leaking somewhere - I had that on my GN250 and it took ages to suss out (Float needle/jet were ok but the O ring that sealed the jet into the carb body was perished and fuel was leaking past that).

Bloody modern petrol is a p.i.t.a.  thats why I alway drain the tank & system down completely on the XBR over winter.

Hope you get it sorted without too much expense Steve.

[Propellor]

+1

[iansoady]

If the clutch linings have swelled then the clutch pack will have become thicker thus giving the slack lever you note.

I would probably just hope the bearings are OK. As long as you've got oil to them (and I'd do another oil change after a couple of hundred miles) you may well get away with it.

[Steve Lake]

Thanks guys... i'll go with the oil change after a couple of runs definitely, filter as well probably.
this problem is of my own making in a way... with the 2 dellorto's on short inlet mountings, there isn't a vacuum take off, so I run my fuel tap on 'prime' , which bypasses the vacuum valve, and to my eternal discredit , I leave it like that permanently, on inspection there was crud in the vacuum valve area so one way and another permanent fuel to the carbs, and crud in the float bowls would indicate that at least one needle valve was not shutting off... (oh how we abuse our machinery, thinking back, I've done bu55er all maintenance in this area since I fitted the dellorto's 6 years ago, working on the good old... 'if it ain't broke , don't fix it' )anyway, full service of the fuelling system seems to have cured any fuel seepage, and in future if not in use I will be turning the tap to run or reserve, thus switching off supply to carbs.

watch this space, I will be stripping at the weekend..... the bike as well probably

[timbo]

Yes, b##### modern fuel! I pulled the Vigor out of its winter slumber, and as soon as I put fuel in and turned the tap on, petrol flowed all over the ground. Had to strip carb and clean, even though it was drained along with tank, before I laid up the bike for the winter. But there must have been a small drop of fuel lingering in one of the jets, as all fine once put back together.
I always drain all fuel out of bikes off the road for a while, but obviously not well enough in this case 

[Propellor]

If the clutch linings have swelled then the clutch pack will have become thicker thus giving the slack lever you note.

Yes I get it now. Makes total sense.

Well done that man.

[manxie]

I had petrol p###ing out of one of my XBR`s once, but that`s all it was...once....then seemed to cure itself after a jolly good thrashing!! (and not with a stick Mr Fawlty)   
Ooops! sorry for getting off topic 

[Propellor]

The Bing carbs on old beemers are renowned for occasionally peeing petrol, but I did 20k miles on mine without issue....... right up until the day the new owner turned up to buy it! Yip, you know the script.

A smart tap with a toffee hammer sorted it and, amazingly, he still bought it. 

Mind you, it was cheap.

A little like my good self.

[Moto63]

Yes I can vouch for that. The bit about him being cheap, (he is a Yorkshireman after all) dunno about the Beemer carb I wasn't there  . 

[Steve Lake]

ok, nice day Saturday, swmbo decreed I was allowed the afternoon for bike fixing (well, tough if she hadn't, she was out all pm anyway :-) )
drained the crankcase, took off all the usual ancilliaries (kickstart, decompressor cable, oil cooler, kick start lever stop), removed right hand casing, (gasket in one piece, probably due to me using grease to seat it many moons ago), everything lovely and oily inside and looking as it should be, unwound the clutch springs, stripped the plates out (keeping them in order)... inspected everything, and couldn't find anything untoward.... offered up the end plate (the one with the play adjuster thingy) and checked for engagement of lever, didn't seem too clever, but everything seemed to be working correctly, so took up slack on lever adjuster and cable adjuster (on lhs of engine)... thoroughly cleaned all the plates, reassembled, torqued up springs....  guess what... clutch cable like a guitar string and clutch disengaged ?......  wound back all the adjusters almost to where I'd started... bingo... working a treat... how weird is that??
put rest of bike together, topped up oil, couple of pints of petrol.... off to the garage for fresh juice and a 20 mile bimble round the lanes... all seems in order... will put a couple of hundred steady miles on, then do an oil/filter change.

I can only put it down to thoroughly cleaning the clutch... but I think in the long term I shall be getting a complete set of plates and new springs, as towards the end of last year a bit of slip was apparent.
roll on some good riding days (for all of us)...

oh... made the classic error..... on the trip to the garage... I thought...bugger...this thing should go round corners better than this??.... figured I'd do the tyres at the garage..... 14psi in the front!!!!.... what a plonker!!!
pip pip

[timbo]

Interesting thread, with, thankfully, a happy ending