Carbs Leaking

I started up my 1976 KZ900 yesterday and started smelling gas. Looked under the bike and there was gas leaking from the left side carbs. Took the pods off of carb 1 and 2 and there was gas leaking from them. I had the bike started a couple of weeks ago and did not see any leaks. What would cause both carbs to leak gas into the pods ?

maybe stuck floats? sometimes you can free them up by tapping on the float bowls with a screwdriver, gently.

I thought about that and tapped the bottom of the bowls but still leaking.

Where's the leak? That would help. If it's coming from the overflow it is definitely related to the floats in some manner (debris, stale gas crud, etc).

If you look at the carbs where the pods connect, the leak is at the hole in the back bottom part of the carb.

is it on the center stand? if its on the side stand engine off, fuel valve open its going to leak. does it leak when its on the center stand? I make it a habit to turn off the fuel when the engine is not running or mine will leak while on the side stand.

I no longer has a center stand, so it is leaning to the left as you sit on the bike. If I turn the fuel off, it stop leaking. It seems like the 2 carbs are getting too much fuel.

It sounds like the floats to me.

does it leak with the bike straight up and down and the engine running? I think it is just the weight of the fuel in your tank pushing the fuel past your needle and seat at the float. always turn fuel off when it is parked on sidestand.

I'll have to check that tomorrow. I have the carbs off the bike right now and when I took the bowls off of #1 and #2 carbs, the floats where not stuck

Besides checking the floats, and see if they leak with the bike sitting straight up and running, is there anything else you can think of that I can check with the carbs already off the bike ?

I just went through this on my bike and the culprit was the ethanol in the gas. I went through 3 petcocks in a year and after talking to Pingel was told that the ethanol was causing a lot of problems with the O-Rings and seals.I wasn't having any issues until they started putting ethanol in the gas so when I put my new carbs on I also put a new petcock on and now I run the Stabil Ethanol treatment and so far so good . This may not be your issue but it may be something to look into.