Repeated hydrolock after carb rebuild

[Argon0639]

Hello!

I have a 97 Valk Standard. Recently had hydrolock. Pulled the carbs and cleaned tested and work fine. The bike has the tank off and no available fuel. It's running off a small shop tank. Can't figure out how to fix it and I don't want to spend $$$ on new carbs if I don't have to. As a side note, the bike runs perfectly otherwise. Any advice or help is very much appreciated. I already searched through the tech board for other threads, but didn't find anything with my specific situation. I will keep looking, but if anyone is aware if a thread feel free to link it.

Thanks again!

Ryan

[art]

Even with the gas turned on the carbs shouldn't allow gas to leak by and fill the cylinders. You may have to take the carbs apart again. In the meantime turn off the gas and run the carbs dry before turning off the engine and be careful when starting it back up. I had serious hydrolock after an acc. when the valk was on its side for several hours and expected it. I was careful and didn't do any damage.

[Jeff K]

I bought a valk that had carb issues. I figured I'd just clean them up and it would be fine. When I pulled the carbs I noticed that they had just been gone through. So I suspect the PO had the same problem, and didn't want to pay to have them cleaned again. I pulled the tank filter and the petcock and they were full of rust particles. I replaced the petcock cleaned the tank and installed a filter and an Advanced Fuel Components electric valve.

No more problems.

[Bighead]

Describe your Hydrolock to us please you say it runs good otherwise? Well if it is Hydrolocked it isn't running at all so please go into detail about your Hydrolock.

[Patrick]

If this monster keeps fuel locking on you with out the stock tank then I suspect you still have varnish in the lines that is getting under the float valves. Have you tried opening the drains and flushing fuel thru them ? It may take several flushes to get everything out.

[Jeff K]

My fuel rails were loaded with particles. After I finished cleaning and reassembling, I left the intake tubes off and left a fuel line hooked to the fuel feed. I use a fuel pump to feed the carbs and watch for leaks. Then I flush the drains a few times to be sure all the crap is out, and there are no leaks into the intake.

[Argon0639]

Thanks for the responses!  To clarify, I have the fuel tank and air box off the bike. I have a small hanging shop tank hooked directly into the fuel feed. After pulling carbs and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning and flushing the fuel lines, had the bike running well. Cut off any fuel flow from shop tank and came back two days later and had hydrolock. Turned out to be the number 4 cylinder (middle on riders left). Pulled the plug (and put a large rag over it) and blew out the fuel and dried the plug. Bike fired right up of course and runs fine. I am hoping a stray piece of crud was interfering with the float/float valve. Right now I have a small amount of fuel in shop tank with level marked and fuel on as if
Petcock open. Hopefully it won't come back. Having taken the petcock out of the equation, is the consensus that it's a stray piece of crud from either the fuel lines or the carbs that is preventing the float from stopping fuel flow?  Thanks again for the feedback!  Love this board. Lol

[Argon0639]

@Patrick:

I'm going to try the drain flush and see if that helps!  Thanks!

[Argon0639]

Left the bike overnight with the shop tank attached to the fuel intake with fuel flow on. This afternoon I checked on it and the fuel level had not moved and the bike fired right up. Replaced the fuel line and added more fuel. Marked the fuel level and left fuel flow on. Will let it sit again to verify that it's fixed. It must have been some crud from the fuel line or whatever. It's a good sign either way.

[Patrick]

The fuel lines hold quite a bit and it doesn't take much to hold a float open.