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trouble with 1500 need help

6K views 19 replies 11 participants last post by  storm 
#1 ·
I know lot of people here have had 1500 Goldwings and I have a 2000 1500 SE Goldwing that has very stong gas smell that others say they can smell gas in the exhaust behind me and this smell is especially strong when I first park in the garage. After it sits for 10 minutes the motor is flooded and makes it had to start. Once it starts it idles and runs fine, gas mileage and preformance is normal. We are 600 miles from home and need help as I dont want to be stranded on the road. There are no Honda dealers with in a 150 miles
 
#3 ·
One of two things......

Fuel petcock has a vacuum line to it , could be that vacuum line is bad.

Bad float in one of the carbs or not shutting off could do it too. Most likely a float if flooding while sitting. Or the needle valve not closing off.
 
#5 ·
gas smell

It is the Auto Fuel Valve. Its located just in front of the gas cap and can be seen easily, but it's held down with one screw in the bottom that is h**l to get out
The valve can be by-passed easily with a piece of plastic tubing and a couple of small radiator clamps. If you wan to rebuild it, Ventco wings has a rebuild kit for around 25.00.
The auto fuel valve was put in there to prevent what is happening to your bike, because under the right circumstances a vacuum can occur and will suck fuel thru the fuel pump and the filter and fill the bike with gas.
The motor vacuum holds the valve open and allows fuel to the carbs. No vacuum, fuel shuts off. When mine went bad ( doing 70 on I-40 in Ark, ) it shut my bike of like turning off the key. Very exciting on cruise in the left lane! ! !

Its just a rubber flap valve with a spring. Very easy to rebuild, but be careful and test it to be sure it holds a vacuum before putting it back in the bike. If you have any further questions, send me a PM and I'll try to help.
 
#6 ·
thanks for the quick replys

Jose, has 44 k miles on it.Yes it sits quite a bit, but has always had stabil gas added and stored indoors.
So far we have checked for loose or cracked lines, and have found none. There seems to be no visible signs of leaking gas. Gary I have a vacume pump and will test if the auto fuel valve is working tomorrow morrning. The strange thing is the motor does not flood all the time, but there is that half buned fuel smell when riding behind all the time. The exhaust pipes are tan and not sooted up at all. I have the bad habit of topping the gas right up to the top, as much as I can squeeze in. This bike has no evap canister as it is a Canadian model. The bike has had no work preformed on it lately and is otherwise running fine
I burned a half tank of gas mixxed with Marvel Mystry oil and made no difference. The carbs have never been touched either. When you open the gas cap there is always a release of pressure. Any other things anyone can think of to check. Thanks
 
#7 ·
My bet is that it is not the auto fuel valve.
I had a 1500 which had close to 90k on it when I traded it. It was about 12 years old at the time.

I was going thru the same thing. I replaced the auto fuel valve, The gas cap and just about everything else and it made no difference. I think it was time for a carb rebuild and it would have been about a grand, or there abouts.

When I was experiencing this gas smell with the 1500 it was after riding it and it was away when it was parked in the garage. Outside, I couldn't smell the gas. I was told it was because a very little gas was dripping on the intakes and evaporating and it would smell real bad but i could only smell it in the garage because it was in confined space.

Other than that, the bike ran like a top and very Strong.
 
#8 ·
Wow, a grand for a carb rebuild ??? I need to get into that line of work... I rebuild a friend’s carbs recently (this spring) and found them to be rather easy to do... The hard part is the removal and installing of them... The coolant lines can be a chore unless you have just the right pliers to get at the spring clamps... There are a good number of vacuum lines to deal with as well...

It can get expensive if the carb diaphrams need replacing, but otherwise it's not a bad job (easily done in one day)...
 
#9 ·
If your float valve is sticking once in a while, it could flood your bike. When it floods are the cylinders on both sides flooded? Several times I was able to stop sticking float valves by rapping sharply on the float bowl with a screwdriver handle. Those problems usually happened early in the spring shortly after starting the bike for the first time. I don't know if you can easily get that close to the float bowl on the 1500. Over the years I have come to appreciate fuel injection.
 
#11 ·
my view re: your fuel problem

All the advice given to you up to now is sound.You have to look carefully at these fuel system components and check them one by one. I recently gave a hand to a friend with similar problems and ended up rebuilding the petcock diaphragm(got a repair kit from Canada--Honda discontinued the repair kit and only sell the unit). carbs may need cleaning and it is entirely possible that needle /float is sticking. These carbs are very simple mechanisms .Try Seafoam or concentrated Techron (one whole bottle ). I wish you were closer.We would do that for you..Not difficult if you have dealt with carbs before.Carbs are a thing of the past,and only older techies deal with them.Wing World has a recent advertisement for a decent 1500 carb repair kit.Good luck and let us know.
 
G
#13 ·
I was thinking the 2000 was fuel injected but if it's carbureted than this is the fix.

On many of the carburated models some dirt gets lodged in the inlet valve to the 2 barrel carb.

The simple first attempt is to unhook the fuel line from the pump (the one that lead to the carbs.)
Grab your air compressor and force air into the line. (40 psi is good)
This will dislodge any dirt in most cases and your off and running.
This is very common and generally after most carb rebuild the needles need to be cleared in this manor as it's not uncommon for some residual dirt to be left in the needle seat area even after a good cleaning.
99% this is all you need to do.
Stabil is a good thing for storage to keep the idle jets clear.

The gas smell is not coming from the exhaust, it is coming from the overflow tubes
 
#14 ·
thanks again

Thanks for the geat help fellows. You are terriffic. I will print of all the replys off and try to go through each one today short of pulling the carbs. I have to head back early tommorrow morning to Edmonton Alberta regardless and we have some long stretches of road with nothing for miles and miles but will be travelling with another rider so will not be stuck.
The thing that gets me is, for the bike to flood the gas must be getting in the engine, but why would I leave a strong gas smell behind me and the exhaust pipes are white and and the motor idles and runs fine. This kind of points to gas spraying on the engine outside surface or outside of the exhaust. The gas smell in the garage seems to be gone in about 45 minutes. Its almost like two problems going on. If I find a problem today I will check back in today otherwise when I find the cause down the road I will post back. I have a 2008 Goldwing for my main bike but was trying to put some miles on the 1500. I really did expect to get some flack from people posting this on a 1800 boad but as usuall you guys came through when I need help.
 
#15 ·
The fact that the bike floods while sitting tells me the needle and seats are not doing their job... If the owner has run E85 in the bike then he likley will be needing replacement needles... I have seen the rubber tip on some needles to turn to mush from the owner putting in injector cleaner and or running E85... I guess it really depends on whet eh owner expects from his bike as to what course of action should be taken... I personally would be removing the carbs and cleaning em up good...
 
G
#16 ·
Try the air trick first, if it doesn't work then do the removal and cleanup.

The gas smell is not coming from the exhaust as the gas is not flooding the engine. I is just a small amount of raw gas dripping out the overflow tubes onto the tire or even hot exhaust pipes.

Important thing to remember regarding everything.

Necessity is the mother of invention
But laziness is the father of efficiency.
 
#17 ·
It sounds like also your riding with your choke open, if your getting white smoke, stable can go bad also, it does have a shelf life, it gets real dark at the bottom of the bottle, SEA FOAM is the way to go, I use it in all gas engine's. Don't know if you can buy that in your country, you might have to come south for that.
Wal-mart
auto store's
rural ridge
tractor supply
farm&fleet

After the bike warms up always close the choke, left side handlebar slide it up and your good for the day of riding. always buy your fuel in a busy station, so you know it's fresh.
 
#18 ·
no more gas smell

I just completed my trip to Alberta and put 1200 km on my 1500. As suggested from the replys quite a few people suggested sea foam. The first gas fill up I noticed cans of sea foam on the shelf so bought 2 cans. I put the recommended amount in the next few gas fill ups and the problem of flooding and gas smell has gone away. Thanks for the help glad it was something simple .
 
#19 ·
:agree:
Run a can of Sea Foam or Techron through it, before you go tearing things apart.

Might be be an easy, cheap answer to your problems.

Bulldog
WE had an 96 that the wife rode and you could smell gas when riding behind her i ran a couple cans of sea foam through it took care of the problem ran great an no more gas smell.
 
G
#20 ·
Well that was an easy fix - lot's better than the tear down :thumbup:

Personally I have used sea foam, carb cleaners, etc and never had any luck unless I used high pressure air and wires with it. I guess there is a first time for everything :cool:
 
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