Carb questions

[Glen_H]

Got up this morning and decided I should take the carbs off the V and clean them up.  Last fall I noticed at times when the bike was shut off it would dribble some gas out of the overflowtube, so I'm thinking its got a plugged jet?  My friends says to replace the needle and seats and it should be good to go.  I've got the carbs off, but have little experience with cleaning them.  Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Glen H

[Lucky]

first, make sure you instal an inline filter if you haven't already.
this will prevent any trash from the tank from from getting stuck in the float needle and seat.  you can't rely on the screen on the petcock.

Second, hopefully you ran the bike recently to be sure there are no other problems, flat spots, etc.  if you hadn't run the bike since fall, did you use a fuel stabilizer in the tank and run the carbs dry? this is good practice.

next, be sure the petcock isn't leaking, pull the fuel line and place it in a glass jar and let it sit for a day or two and then check the jar for fuel.

if all of the above checks out, then i would just replace the needle and seat, best to do both sets, they're probably the same age, and their cheep.  you should be ok with a can of carb spray and the straw tube.  be sure to count the # of turns in on the pilot screws before you remove them, (write it down) and blast those out as well as the jets under the carb and the emultion tube in the top of the lower half of the carb (82 only, 83's are soldered to the pilot jet)

Finaly, double check the float level, if you have black bike go 2mm lower than specs to allow for fuel expantion.  clogged jets won't cause fuel to come out the overflow.  

--Lucky