I have a 1200 Custom and noticed that I have fuel coming out of the overflow tube off of the carb. I have been duing some digging and tried the following. Took off the air filter and backing plate and found the follwing: As soon as youopen the petcock, gas comes pouring out of the bottom of the carb; opened the gas cap same results, opened and closed the choke same results. When trying to start the cycle, the gas comes out of overflow tube instead of out of the bottom of the carb. Any thoughts or suggestions on what to try or look fornext?

 

Mine did the same, I think the float was stuck. It stopped when I tapped the bowl.

 

You likely have some crud in the carb. bowl that's causing the float to stick.

 

+1

 

My 99 1200 does it from time to time as well. Not quite as bad as yours sounds like its doing it, but bad enough. For whatever reason there is no inline fuel filter on mine, so Im looking into a carb rebuild kit, mainly to clean out the crap that is in it and replace the old gaskets since Im at 17000 miles anyway and it may need it. Im also going to get an inline filter that will stop most of that junk from getting that far to begin with. Im sure you have junk in yours just like the others said. Actually with yours pouring the way you said I bet your float is defective in some way. I had an old hot rod that did that and it ended up being a float that actualy filled up with gas and sank to the bottom of the chamber, which opens the needle and lets fuel flow freely. Not saying thats what you got, just tossin a possibility at ya.

 

a hole in the float is a real pain. i don't know about harley floats, but the old jap-jobs were made of brass so you could solder one back together for $0. you must get all the gas out&nbsp\\;or it wont work.&nbsp\\;during soldering, the gas will expand and blow the solder out of the hole. it'll drive ya nuts.
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i'm sure a plastic float would be easy to patch too. a drop or two of adhesive over the hole should do it. super glue might hold up. i know for sure jb weld can hold up to gasoline.