I was riding home from work two days ago and my 2005 ninja 250 died at a stop sign right by my house. I cranked it about 5 times and it finally started back up just was really weak (lacked power). I just lived around the corner from the stop sign so I drove it and parked it in the garage.
Today, I was going to go to the store but when I went to start the bike it just turned and turned. I looked underneath the bike and it was leaking gas.. quite a bit at that. Checked the bike over pretty well and it seems like the gas leak is coming from the exhaust. So, upon reading up a bit, I opened up the oil, stuck my finger in and smelled gas. Not to mention the oil seemed very very thin from the gas.
What's going on with my bike? I need to get to work tomorrow and this is really my only vehicle. I can borrow another motorcycle but I'd really like to get my bike back in shape asap. Any advice to get my bike running again?
The fuel may be coming from the carb overflow hose and not the exhaust. It sounds as if the carb floats are stuck and allowing gas to over fill the carbs or your petcock is damaged and allowing to much fuel to flow as well.
Did you turn the petcock off?
Did your oil level change at all? If so, you will need to change your oil and filter, and repair the floats or petcock.
I shut off the petcock last night. You don't think there is any engine damage from this? I hope I can just get a new petcock, fix the carb floats, and change the oil. By the way, I just did an oil and filter change two weeks ago but it does have gas in the fresh oil now so doubt that fact does much good.
I guess I should include this. I had a car mechanic take a look at it last night (my step dad) and he shot some carb cleaner into the air box and tried to crank it. It sounded okay at first like it was just turning, then he tried again and it sounded pretty bad, then he tried again... and it didn't even try anymore it did absolutely nothing. You think that might of forced more gas through the system and seized the engine?
Your engine was probably OK until you sprayed carb cleaner into it. You never, ever ever spray carb cleaner in to the air box or carb without removing the diaphragms. There is a possibility that you may now have a completely ruined set of diaphragms because of the carb cleaner. Carb cleaner will eat the rubber diaphragms. The bike will absolutely not run and won't even start.
BTW, diaphragms are about $100 each. You may be able to buy a used (functioning) carb for much less. The only way to find out how screwed they are is to remove the carbs, which you would have had to do anyway.
Carb cleaner should not damage the diaphragms. In any case, it's very unlikely to come into contact with them unless it's sprayed directly into the carb venturis and up onto the underside of the diaphragms.
Damaged diaphragms will not prevent the bike from starting, but they prevent it from revving past about 3K rpm.
If the petcock is left open it shouldn't matter as the tap is vacum operated unless you set it to prime. If you do, the floats should still prevent fuel from overflowing the carbs, although they very often don't when the bike is parked. They have a tendency to stick, but free up from the vibration when the motor starts. The petcock can't flow too much fuel. The floats control the rate of flow. The float bowls are vented and will normally direct any overflow out to the ground, but some excess can flow into the cylinders if the inlet valve is open on one of them. That might explain the fuel in your oil.
I think I'd start by removing the plugs and cleaning them, then turn the enigine over using a car battery to clear the cylinders of anything that might strill be in them before replacing the plugs. Then try and jump start the bike as I think you've flattened the bike's battery.
I started pulling it apart today. I pulled the spark plugs and took a picture of one which might help with identify the issue. Haven't pulled the carbs yet.
The carbs are a pain to remove. Any tips on removing? That airbox gets frustrating to maneuver to get the carbs out. Also, I checked the airbox and the bottom of it has gas in it.
Another update, I opened the Crankshaft Case (I think that is what it is called. The case with the really long line you pull off to turn the engine manually). As soon as I opened that case, gasoline came pouring out of it. Have probably a gallon of gasoline on the garage floor now.
Also, found a fairly inexpensive mechanic to work on the carbs for me. I was planning on clearing all the gas from the cylinders and draining all the fluids myself prior to having them work on the carburetor. I'm not much of a mechanic so we will see how that goes.
2005 250 Leaking gas
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