Leaky carbs on an '05

[ACL 9000]

I've just started trying to clean and prep my Ninja for duty this year. I bought it in 2013, I think, when I started riding. I think the last thread I started was probably back then, asking for help with a problem that turned out to simply be tight valves.

A handful of years ago I had a dealership go through the carburetors because I just didn't want to bother taking the time, myself. Since then I've owned a few more bikes and let the Ninja sit. A couple summers ago a friend of mine crashed it and messed up a footpeg, so it really hasn't been ridden much at all in a while.

I'm going to go through the whole bike fairly thoroughly to get it cleaned and prepared, but the first thing I wanted to do was establish that it does actually run. It fired right up and idled fine, but it was a little boggy on throttle and I noticed it was leaking quite a bit while it was on.

If I turn the petcock to off while the bike is running the leak will stop. If I kill the engine but leave the petcock on the leak will stop. I feel like this means the petcock is working fine.

I think the bowl gaskets are fine because the leak appeared to be coming from higher up.

I took the carbs out and disassembled them a little bit and the float needles seem OK, so I don't think they're leaking, and I don't think the floats stick or anything like that. Nothing was draining out of the overflow tube.

Now I'm just kind of puzzled. I was hoping for a simple solution like finding a bad gasket or a stuck float. I'm aware that there is some kind of crossover thing between the two carburetors. Is that pretty much the final remaining suspect in my investigation?

What should I be doing at this point? I saw on Murph's Kits I can get a couple parts, but I'm not sure yet how to get any O-rings to replace those that I think are leaking.

[ducatiman]

replacing rail orings (the crossover thing you refer to) obviously requires "splitting" the rack

Its an '05....now 15 year old, wow time flies! While split and apart, i'd suggest to do the whole enchilada....vent rail rings, pilot screw orings,bowl orings, float valves....replace all the "consumables" ...a fresh start, if you will.

Beware some of the copycat carb kits flooding the market....I've encountered various scenarios...wrong pilot screws, incorrectly sized orings, incorrect float valves included but yet sold as "exact fit". Not so, not by a long shot.

[ACL 9000]

I think that's what I'll do. I've had some Cobra mufflers around for a while that are hilarious to have on the bike but I took them off because I could tell the bike wasn't happy. I just ordered the Factory Pro jet kit to make those work well, so now I just need to source all the bits I need to replace and I'll just go through the whole thing.

How are we sourcing carburetor consumables these days? I see on eBay a lot of kits that tout brand names and appear to come with everything, including the screws I need to replace because they're all chewed up.

I trust Murph's but I feel like I definitely need some pieces that aren't in that kit.

[65Mulberry]

I literally just went through this !!! drove me nuts til I figured it out.... probly pulled them and set floats 10x, replaced bowl gaskets, etc. Ended up just putting new O-rings on the bowl rail tube. its between the carbs, some are metal, mine was black nylon. O-rings were totally roached and flat. --- didnt even have to totally split rack. took 5 mins really. Used Viton o-rings from a Harbor Freight jumbo pack. perfect since.

[ducatiman]

Splitting affords unimpeded access to fully clean entire fuel pathways, both fuel and vent rails themselves, inspect seal integrity of both vac hoses between the carbs and allow cleaning the rail oring//seal ports.
I consider all that important, but all according to how far you want to go.
On 15 year old carbs, doing everything in one shot....eliminating the frustrating need to R&R carbs multiple times would be in ones best interests.