No longer an emergency, and now is AWESOME!!

[Disco]

On almost all 2 strokes there is an "off" position on the petcock. On our RZ's (the one in question is a U.S. 1985) we have on/prime/res. Do any of those equate to "off"???
Reason why I asked is we finally had a nice day so I brought my bike to work. At an early lunch, where I parked I noticed gas, and looked to see it dripping fairly quickly from the right carb, coming out of the bottom (nothing coming out of the overflow tube). I've never noticed that before and just cleaned it all up this weekend.
I drove it back to work and gas was now coming out of the right carb AND the overflow tube on the left carb. Again both dripping pretty quickly.

So is there a spot that would be "off"? I'd like it to stop during work today if possible.

And, what the heck might be going on? She started and ran no problem on the way to work, and nothing on the garage floor when I left this morning (I put air in both tires so I was right down there and would have noticed this much dripping).

Quite honestly I'm a bit worried about gas on the way home. Of course today was the day I didn't bring my backpack with a container of oil in it (premix gas) to fill it up before the 40 mile drive home.

[Disco]

I grabbed a 28 oz cup from our work "kitchen" and put it under the bike. It didn't take very long and there was almost 1/2 inch in the bottom. I've got a serious issue. Help would be appreciated. obviously a float issue but with no tools or time to do anything, I can't just let my bike run out of gas in the parking lot.... Help.

[justind97]

On would be the equivalent to off. ON is looking for suction from the engine via one of the carbs. Same with RES.

Prime is essentially wide open fuel valve.

[ief]

Point being, your petcock AND carbs could do with an overhaul.

[Disco]

Ok thanks. That kinda sucks for today then...
On/off/res like most 2 strokes would have been ideal in this situation.

[giron]

you can always change the petcock to a RZ250 from Japan

[Disco]

Weird... I was able to get out and check the bike after about 2hours. The cup was almost full so I emptied it and put it back. Bike was still dripping fast. Came back in an hour and it had stopped. I watched for 2_3 minutes and didn't see a drop. . No, it's not out of gas. This is quite odd.. should have no issue getting home. That's the good part.

[JanBros]

Ok thanks. That kinda sucks for today then...
On/off/res like most 2 strokes would have been ideal in this situation.

no, a vacuum-tap is ideal : you do not need to put it on/off yourself, it's done automaticaly. but just as any device that has moving parts, sometimes it goes wrong. just as a on/off/res tab can also have leaking problems if the rubber is damaged.

and the fact that gas drips also from the overflow means your float valves do not shut off properly ! it's more important to fix that than the tap.

[giron]

anything mechanical can go wrong, but chances are the mechanical petcock will be more reliable. I have several two strokes. I had issues with the RZV500 carburetors leaking fuel from the vent lines. I believe it had something to do with needle jets? I then saw that my TZR250SP 3MA has a shutoff petcock under the gas tank. Why didn't Yamaha incorporate this into the RZV500 gas tank. When a bike sits that long a petcock can go wrong. I added the TZR250SP petcock under the gas tank to my RZV500 Gas tank a direct bolt on.

[Disco]

Agreed. Turning a petcock to "on" isn't a challenge, and having "off" can be very helpful... I may look into it.

Made it home, but 2 blocks away at a stop light I smell gas, look down, and see gas spraying out onto my right leg from a vacuum nipple at the bottom of the bowl. It DID have a hose on it prior to the drive home, the hose is now gone. Got home, parked it. no dripping continued as it did in the work parking lot. Changed clothes and had to get to a baseball game (coach). Won't be able to look at it at all until next week. I believe these may be spec II carbs because they aren't the same as on my 84... any thoughts appreciated. Wish I had some pics to share.

[Hooligan]

Those petcocks have a plastic seal inside that goes hard after a while. It is cheap and easy to fix.

[giron]

I replaced the petcock on my 1990 RZ350 with an older style petcock. The simplicity of the RD400. The computer techs have a saying KISS (keep it simple and stupid) Also Carrol Shelby once said "Why fix it if ain't broken"

[Disco]

I'll be trying to figure out the main issue asap, most of you are pointing to the petcock, and/or float(s) being stuck, yes?
I've determined that while the engine was running, the gas was coming out of the nipple at the bottom of the bowl where the oil line was (now missing) attached. The oil line was only about 4 in long and not attached to the oil pump (P.0.'s ran premix).

I was able to take a pic this a.m. I can't post pics but if someone who knows their stuff wants to send me a p.m. I'll gladly email the picture, perhaps you could help me identify the carbs as well, which would be a plus. I'm positive they aren't stock.

thanks to anyone willing to jump onboard.

[ief]

You can attach a picture on this forum easily, only thing is it has to be smaller then 257 kb. In 2017 that shouldn't be a problem anymore ;)

[Disco]

Hello again...
Took the tank off, petcock hasn't given up one drop of gas in a couple hours (and no leaks since parking it thursday). So petcock seems ok.

Pulled the carbs, and my mistake, they must be stock (stamped 48H 00). Plenty of gunk in the bowls, so I'm cleaning everything now. Floats seem to be functioning very well, and aren't sticking.

Both while shut off and while engine running, gas was coming out of the nipple on the float bowl where the oil injection lines enter...though on both my bowls the nipple comes out of the right side of the bowl and points to the right. In most pictures I've seen they exit the rear of the bowl and point to the back of the bike. Am I looking at pictures correctly or are my bowls different?

Anyway, both of these nipples had about 4 inch sections of oil line attached and they both went straight up, but weren't attached to anything. I noticed that the one on the right carb had broken off on my way home last week and that's when the gas started spraying out. It could have had a crack in it earlier and that's what caused the dripping on from that carb. My question is, if I just replaced those sections of oil line, could that end the issue? As in gravity in the lines kept things from leaking? That seems a bit odd and way too easy.

As mentioned I'd love it if someone sent me a pm and I'd email a few pics. Per IEF's mention of how easy it is to post pictures... it isn't (I've posted hundreds of pics online and on other forums). I've used two different photobucket accounts and a shutterfly, even with screenshots sent from other members, I couldn't post on this site. However, I'd gladly let one of you post the pics I email.

Maybe someone out there knows the answer without pics, but I must admit that all the pics you guy have posted area a. helpful b. often very enjoyable to look at, so I'm more than willing to have some on here.