Evening All,
First Post Newbie here. On Sunday, I bought a 1989 RC30 at auction. It's the bike I have lusted after since my 20s, when they started cleaning up on the Superbike circuits. I was at the Stafford Classic Bike Show, looking for some parts for my 66 and 79 Bonnevilles, and spotted the RC in the auction. I started waving at the auctioneer and the next thing I knew, I had bought it.
The bike is in very good condition generally, but needs recommissioning after being in storage for a while (carbs and tank drained). I selected a high gear and rolled her forward to check the engine turned over freely. Then, after checking she had oil, coolant etc, I put in a half litre of fresh 97RON, turned on the fuel tap, pulled out the choke and hit the starter.
The oil light extinguished almost straight away and after a few short seconds, she coughed. So I tweaked the idle adjuster up a little and tried again. She burst into life with that familiar BigBangCrank sound. Lovely! I planned to let her get up to temperature, to look for any issues, but it didn't take long....
There was a strong smell of petrol, and a small puddle forming under the engine! So I shut her down and removed the tank and airbox. No sign of any obvious pipe issues and the tap seemed OK. So I took the lower fairing off and found that the LH side foam pad was soaking wet with fuel. Presumably from the LH carb area.
Any thoughts please? Sticking float or needle valve causing flooding and overflow? Lose drain plug? Float chamber gasket? I might strip the carbs and put them through my ultrasonic cleaner, then rebuild them with rebuild kits (assuming they are available), but would really appreciate any input first.
Thanks,
B