fuel leaking out

[Heathen]

1.  I'm not a mechanic, and have almost no experience working on motors

My valk only sat up for a few weeks.  then I noticed fuel pouring out from above the carbs on the left side.  I was able to trace the leak to a hose on a T-shaped plastic piece that goes in between two of the intake manifolds on the carbs.   I have no idea what that T-shaped piece is called.. it freely rotates around when the hose is disconnected.  Taxing my mechanical abilities to the max.. I removed the air box, and replaced all the fuel hoses, and all the vacuum lines, includes all the lines that originated on this octopus-looking plastic piece.  Turns out that three of these lines were plugged anyway, and this octopus-looking piece just seems to vent down to the ground anyway.  But all the hoses are new, I guess that's for the good.    - is it clear yet just how out of my depth I am??  LOL!-

I had hoped that the fuel line was just loose or worn, or had a crack I couldn't see from the outside.. but after putting everything back together, fuel is still leaking out.   So from the research I've tried to do, I'm now thinking maybe a stuck float?? 

I cannot afford to take the bike to a mechanic and be charged $800 for a carb job.  I'm going to have to fix this myself.

My current plan is to buy the best fuel additive carb-cleaner money can buy and run this through the engine and hope that it magically unsticks whatever is stuck.   I am not sure that I'm competent to try to take the carburetor off the bike and work on the carbs.. but if this fuel additive thing doesn't work, I guess that's what I'll have to do.

So here are my questions for you experienced guys.

Help!!??

Also.. 

Where can I find an idiot's guide to doing this stuff?  I tried some you tube videos, but they all seems to make the assumption that the viewer knows a bit more about what's going on than I do.  They'll say "after you remove the Carbs, do such-and-such" and I'm left wondering "how does one remove the carbs?" 

also

What are some other things that could have caused this?   I saw one article mention fuel rail O-rings..

BTW, an important thing to know is that this is a 98 standard that I bought from a friend 2 years ago.  It had sat for over a year in his garage and so part of the purchase was taking it to a mechanic and having a Carb Job done, because fuel poured out the left side when I tried to start it..   So I don't know what all parts a mechanic cleans or replaces during a Carb Job, but that was recently done.  Since then the bike has run great and has not sat unused for more than a few weeks.  When I did sit unused I put STA_BIL in the fuel tank to prevent the fuel from eating away at the seals (which is how the mechanic described to me the problem)

Thanks for any tips!
-Sam

[Chrisj CMA]

Those hoses that go between the intakes are vacuum lines, not fuel lines.  If in fact they were full of fuel, that means your were in some stage of hydrolock.  This means the Petcock is bad and either #3 or #4 carburetor has a bad needle valve.  You really need to replace the petcock and fix the carburetor that is not shutting off the fuel flow.  Lots of info on hydrolock you can find on this site.

[Heathen]

Sorry if my post was unclear.. it probably is, since I don't know the names of everything!  But no, the vacuum lines had no fuel in them..  I went ahead and replaced them while everything was apart because they were cracking..   the fuel lines I replaced were the ones that run from the bottom of the tank and into the two T-shaped plastic pieces that seem to go into the carburetor assembly.

[Chrisj CMA]

Well, Im glad you seem to be able to get her fixed.........you were pretty specific with a description that now turns out to be a total change of things.  Its pretty hard to help answer a question if the facts change so dramatically.....

Hope its all good now

[sdv003]

Could that "T piece" be part of the fuel rail?  If it's made of hard plastic, that's what I would guess.  A picture of one is here:

http://redeye.ecrater.com/p/6738361/carb-fuel-rail-leak-kit

If so, I'm sure there are many posts that you could search that could tell you way more than anything I could post.  I've done the carbs once due to a bad fuel rail leak, it wasn't too bad.

[Pappy!]

A photo of the location of the leak would be ever so helpful.
You are indicating the leak is still in a fuel tee?

[dan7uk]

Check out D-Ray's video's on You tube.  They were helpful to me when I tore my carbs apart.  I believe there is about 9 videos, link below is the first video and will get you started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyszhh4XHs

[RainMaker]

Check out D-Ray's video's on You tube.  They were helpful to me when I tore my carbs apart.  I believe there is about 9 videos, link below is the first video and will get you started.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITyszhh4XHs

My son's Tourer sat up for 2 years and has the carb issue, probably a rusty tank, too.  Those videos have given me confidence to go into the bike.  Thanks for posting the link.