Possible Fuel Leak

[DTro]

Last night after fishing I stopped and fueled up my sled. Did not drive afterwards other than backing off trailer into garage.

Today I walked into the garage to a strong fuel smell. I tracked it down to the sled area. I poked around and found a small puddle under the skid plate/belly pan.

I filled it to the top. Is there an overflow or something, or is it a leak, and where should I start looking.

The only abnormal things lately is a bottle of heat in the tank and starting fluid in the cylinders.

[Macgyver55]

If you fueled it up all the way, and then brought it into a warmer place, the fuel will expand and push out through the tank vent. Thats probably all that happened.

[DTro]

thanks for the info

I put some cardboard underneath just a bit ago and in 2 hours there was still a decent size fuel spot

[Surface Tension]

If you look around at the top/fount of the gas tank there will be a nipple. There could or could not be a small hose attached to that. Its a vent.

As Mac said a full gas tank brought into a warm place will have the gas expand and run out the vent.

Anyway look for that nipple and see if thats whats happening.

You should have the fuel shut off. If you have a bad float or inlet valve, that'll eliminate gas running into the carbs and overflowing.

While your in there looking, check the fuel lines and clamps.

[DTro]

Thanks Frank, I'm going to go take a look at it here in a bit.

[DTro]

Here's a little update.

I had some trouble getting it started today, once started I took it out and rode it about 10 miles. I noticed a strong fuel smell the whole time. It ran good at high rpm, but if I backed off or stopped it loaded pretty bad and would bog upon hitting the throttle.

At home I shut it down and snowblowed for a while, maybe a half hour. After that I tried starting it and it was flooded. Had to hold it wide open while starting to clear it out.

I backed it into garage, shut off the fuel line and let it sit for 15 minutes. Looked underneath and still had a small fuel spot on the floor.

I cannot locate the source of the leak (geez it's tight in there).

Any suggestions?

[Sprinter]

DTRO, Sounds to me like ST may have hit it. If it keeps leaking now that you have burned some of the fuel off I would think that it is one of your floats that is bad. That also sounds like the problem based off the symptoms that you described. When the floats come up they push on a needle valve and basically shut off the fuel. If your float is sinking it will never shut off. Depending on what kind of carb it is the leak may be coming out of the idle air breather. Not all of the carbs have this breather though. Some have a foam piece right at the carb, others have a hose that goes to a different location. Hope this helps as these types of problems can be a real pain.

[Macgyver55]

Sounds like dirt in the needle seat of one of the carbs or a sticking float.

[DTro]

thanks guys, was afraid of that. I guess i need to go pull the carbs. Never done that before so this should be interesting......

[Macgyver55]

They are not hard to do, just take your time and pay attention to small details. Make sure to take note and/or mark the carbs too. You dont want to mix them up. They sometimes use different jets in different positions {PTO or MAG side of engine)and you don't want the cable adjustments to be wrong either.

[DTro]

ugh, I'm stuck.

There is some sort of linkage that runs down from between the carbs and down to the bottom of the block. All indications is that it's for the oil injection system.

Anyways, there doesn't appear any easy way to disconnect this.

2003 Polaris 500

[elkrivermn]

ado you have a carberated engine? If you do judgeing my the symptoms I would say your float is sticking.

[PierBridge]

I hope your garage is heated I've done a few in non-heated garages and its painful. Good thing you have a twin instead of a triple.

[DTro]

I'm pretty sure I know which one it is, but they are actually tied together. I'll probably do both. Once I get them off, I'll just bring them inside and clean them.

I just need to figure out how to disconnect this darn oil injection/throttle position linkage.

[Shack]

Dtro,

Is this the linkage you are talking about? Item 1 & 2?

[DTro]

Yes that's it!

I needed to remove the nut at the bottom, so now i have the carbs off.

Is there really only one small screw holding the bowl onto the carb?

[DTro]

Well that was fun

Looky what I found in one of the float needle seats:

Got er all back together and she runs like a top.

I just have little reservation about the oil pump linkage though. There is a spring on there and I'm not sure if i got it back on again right. It's so tight it was basically putting it on blind. The linkage moves up and down okay.

Hope it's OK

Can anyone confirm if there is an overheat alarm or light just in case?

[Shack]

HMMMMMMMMMMM?

Might be a good idea to mix some gas/oil up and run that for now, while watching the oil reservoir to see if you are bring in oil to the motor (level dropping).

Put a couple spare sets of plugs in the storage area

Second thought, that is just an assist spring (ease of movement/return). As long as you can see that lever on the pump move, when you manually move the linkage, it is actuating the oil injection pump. I assume with that lever installed over the spring, you can not see the spring load/wind up when the linkage is moved. Heck I can not recall if you can even see the linkage at all when it is back together.

I would say your fine, as long as the nut does not fall off the lever

[DTro]

thanks Shack

yeah everything is on tight, but I don't see the spring doing anything, however the actuator moves up and down in sync with the throttle.

I'll keep an eye on it

[MuskieJunkie]

Might be a good idea to mix some gas/oil up and run that for now, while watching the oil reservoir to see if you are bring in oil to the motor (level dropping).

That's a good tip for anyone that might have questions about their oiling system, thanks.

[DTro]

I'm going to continue this saga in hopes that it might help someone else down the road:

So I figure I have everything all fixed and I'm good to go. Take it for a long ride myself. Let mom and dad take it for a good spin. Then decide to go on a little extended trip with the wife.

Get out in the swamp about 6 miles from anything and figure I should head back. Let the wife take over and no sooner did that happen, it just dies. I think....uh oh

Pull the plugs and can clearly see I'm not getting any gas. Frozen line again maybe, or some sort of blockage.

I try to spray some starting fluid into the cylinder to try to fire the enginge and work it out. The dang nozzle on the spray can breaks off and guess where it falls? Yep right in the cylinder.

Now it's time to start walking.

I will just say that it was a VERY long night and that's all I need to say about that

Got a chance to work on it this morning. First had to get the nozzle out and used a good tip given to me and pulled the exhaust and used compressed air to blow it out.

Then I had to troubleshoot the initial problem.

I worked my way back from the carbs and this is what I finally found:

That would be my very short pickup tube

I essentially ran out of gas even though I still had half a tank.

and............I now know how a large piece of plastic was able to find it's way into my carb and caused my very first problems.

Whew glad that is done.

For now