First time fired up

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Cavscoutjim
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First time fired up

#1

Post by Cavscoutjim »

So I fired up my 62 panhead today for the first time, and it sputtered and died shortly. It felt like it was going to grab on the second kick. I noticed the carb over flow had a constant stream of fuel. Subsequent kicks sounded like there was no spark, or the bike was extremely flooded. I couldn't tell by the smell cause I was in an open garage and the over flow made everything smell like gas. I turned the fuel off and the the overflow slowed to a trickle but never stopped. I drained the fuel and pulled the petcock. My question is, will a faulty petcock cause the motor to flood? Also, is it normal for the carb to dump that much fuel? I was also wondering if there was a secret to get the oil pump to circulate the oil with out the motor turning, since everything was mostly dry.
1950Panhead
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Re: First time fired up

#2

Post by 1950Panhead »

A leaky fuel valve will cause the engine to flood.
Some times a valve can be reseated with a moderate tap while in the seat.
Bad floats can also cause the problems you describe.
Be careful, more then one panhead has met it's maker from these problems.
Jerry
Last edited by 1950Panhead on Fri Apr 27, 2012 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Panhead Ed
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Re: First time fired up

#3

Post by Panhead Ed »

there must be 10 million post here on this subject...
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Re: First time fired up

#4

Post by Cotten »

Cavscoutjim!

I would bet upon two problems at least;
Please try the forum search function for "petcock" and "floatvalve".
They are separate concerns.

A dry motor can be partially primed with a pressure bottle:
PRIMEBTL.jpg
But the motor will still need to be turned through repeatedly to distribute the lube.

However, most motors that have been parked for long have sumped oil to eliminate!
Pulling the plugs, and kicking a lot helps a little.

....Cotten
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Cavscoutjim
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Re: First time fired up

#5

Post by Cavscoutjim »

1950Panhead wrote:A leaky fuel valve will cause the engine to flood.
Some times a valve can be reseated with a moderate tap while in the seat.
Bad floats can also cause the problems you describe.
Be careful, more then one panhead has met it's maker from these problems.
Jerry
Thanks for the info, any advice on how now to not kill this one? I plan on replacing the petcock and kicking it over a thousand times before my next attempt. If I still have problems I'll check the carb, its a brand new super e, so I was leaning more towards the 60 year old petcock as the culprit.
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Re: First time fired up

#6

Post by 58flh »

Sounds like you might be dealing with 2-problems,---Petcock off should not trickle-fuel!-& The float-needle & seat should of stopped the fuel from going that far!--This has been known to happen on new ones right out of the box!----Richie
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Re: First time fired up

#7

Post by tcb-1 »

Or your float is stuck way high. Not likely, but maybe...

I had the same problems when I first put gas in my '50 after 42 years of sitting.

Like weveryone else said, I imagine it's a combination of fuel shutoff and the float needle. My suggest is to drain all the gas out of the system and pull the entire shutoff assembly out and thoroughly clean. My shutoff assembly was so gummed up, that it was not allowing the rod tip to fully engage into the seat of the shutoff and it NEVER completely stopped fuel flow.

Then pull the bowl off the carb and check the shutoff needle and seat and replace if need be. And while your at it, replace the float with a better version, see the guru Cotten for that. When building the carb back up, make dang sure the float is adjusted per the manual or your will still get overflow.
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