Gohot229
Wizard
I'm thinking varnish in the floatbowls from setting for a long time. Awwww this is not good......after raving about how much fun your going to have on this bike. A tale tale sign or 'red' flag would be as you said about having to adjust the throttle cable free play.........leads me to believe the previously owner did a jet kit themselves, made a mistake and rather than having someone with carb skill check it out and make sure the install was done right, offed it on a trade-in against another bike, or as they were removing the tank, tore the line from the petcock to the carbs. Sounds like perhaps eneptness was going on, wether by mistake or lack of knowledge. My second feeling is that it may have been setting for some time and varnished up the carbs, thus allowing one or more of the carburator floats to be stuck in an open position. The carb floats would hang down (open) if the bike was stored with no fuel, and the minimum level of fuel inside the bowls ....over time would be subject to having the fuell to evaporate away, and if the feull was old, a propensity to form varnish on the float, float-pin and in the orifice for the fuel needle valve (# 18) in lower left part of illustration. (or #1 in second illus.)If this becomes varnished up it will not gravity fall against the float tang and essentially stay open, thus allowing for gas to continue un-checked ie. the overflow you observed, which would have continued until the tank had emptied, and the overflow hose would be the path down to under the bike and then puddling. ..........OR..... as was said earlier, the jet kit could be installed incorrectly, and if a novice did it to save money from taking it to a shop, it's likely by a bet of one out of four, something went awry. Don't loose heart, these are *SIMPLE* fixes, and a competent shop should have it checked out and correctly installed in two or three hours time, start to finish. The thing you said about all the controls ultimatly being out of wack and needing adjustment leads me to believe the previous owner was not adept at maintenance, or even ignorant on the workings of the powertrain, or even the whole bike, and mostly added gas and rode.........
Sorry, the pic came out too small, go to Motorcycle Parts, Motorcycle Accessories ? BikeBandit.com and go to oem, then brand then year, and then to FZ1 and you will have a full menu, click on carbs and observe part # 18 in the exploded view......this is the part which is subject to fouling when varnish forms.Courtesy of *IOWAZ*, here is one which may better show the (NEEDLE JET) <middle lower right> item # 1... The white picture is what will pop up from Bike bandit's site, the deffenition will be much larger. <IOWAZ's> picture#1,9,10,11 and 12 would be the likely gummed(varnish) parts affected.THE jets them selves, if they were gummed up with varnish would affect the carburation differently, it would block flow of fuel, and the float bowl would not fill up and you would trace that down by having a dead cylinder which would manifest as a COLD exhaust pipe because no fuel would enter the path from tank to carb to intake and combustion, thuss a non-fireing (COLD) pipe. I don't think this is the case from your discription but rather a miss-install or more likely the (varnish) build-up from setting and slowly evaporating inside the bowls over time. It could happen in a couple weeks time of just setting if the gas was old to start with and quickly form varnish inside as evaporation occured. Certainly old gas would accelerate this process. The key element here or clue would be the smell of the gas in the tank when you innitally got the bike, theres an un-mistakable smell when gas is going bad to the point of forming varnish, un-mistakable and ....well....varnish smelling.
Sorry, the pic came out too small, go to Motorcycle Parts, Motorcycle Accessories ? BikeBandit.com and go to oem, then brand then year, and then to FZ1 and you will have a full menu, click on carbs and observe part # 18 in the exploded view......this is the part which is subject to fouling when varnish forms.Courtesy of *IOWAZ*, here is one which may better show the (NEEDLE JET) <middle lower right> item # 1... The white picture is what will pop up from Bike bandit's site, the deffenition will be much larger. <IOWAZ's> picture#1,9,10,11 and 12 would be the likely gummed(varnish) parts affected.THE jets them selves, if they were gummed up with varnish would affect the carburation differently, it would block flow of fuel, and the float bowl would not fill up and you would trace that down by having a dead cylinder which would manifest as a COLD exhaust pipe because no fuel would enter the path from tank to carb to intake and combustion, thuss a non-fireing (COLD) pipe. I don't think this is the case from your discription but rather a miss-install or more likely the (varnish) build-up from setting and slowly evaporating inside the bowls over time. It could happen in a couple weeks time of just setting if the gas was old to start with and quickly form varnish inside as evaporation occured. Certainly old gas would accelerate this process. The key element here or clue would be the smell of the gas in the tank when you innitally got the bike, theres an un-mistakable smell when gas is going bad to the point of forming varnish, un-mistakable and ....well....varnish smelling.
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