hydrolocking...?
 

so i leave it sit for a week or so and the front cylinder fills completely up with fuel and wont turn over, take the plug out and shoot gas like 15ft forward. stuck needle? float? need to rebuild carb? ive rebuild hollys, eldelbrocks, and motorcraft carbs but have no idea what makes this carb tick. i think i should be able to do it though... i just changed the oil last week and feel i should change it again in case fuel leaked past the rings. also after i shut it off, it smokes out of the right side exhaust and smells of oil. rings? blowby? what do yall think?

Float stuck & petcock malfunction both. If either one worked right this would not happen

:iagree: and yes you need to change the oil again. As for the right exhaust, too hard to tell at this point. Get it running right and warmed up well and then see if it still happens and go from there.

carbs are easy to work on, hard to get off, but easy to clean, pull bowl, remove float & needle (probably where your problem is and check your needle valves) if you havent replaced em probably a good idea. go ahead and pull jets and clean thos too along with emulsion tube and pilot. do one carb at a time and put completely back together before starting the other. all can be done still bolted together and with linkage on.

gas leaked into the crankcase and oil is overly full. Drain and replace to see how the exhaust smoke does. Unless you ran it much, you'll probably be ok.

how much oil does it take? i havent ridden it since i changed the oil and i put 4 qts of rotella t 15w40 and it looked just right in the sight glass

I'd have to check the manual, but that's about right. Are you saying you are still seeing the oil at proper level in the sight glass after your hydrolock? If so, that says the oil may not have much gas in it. I'd still say it's safer to replace it though. Gas would have leaked down around your rings and diluted the oil to the point of it not lubricating properly.

By the way, my mom is like 76. are you really THAT interested in her? :shock:

haha its the principle of it.
but yeahi changed the oil after the first hydrolock and it was like baby oil and smelled completely like gas then this hydrolock happened. so if its the float and petcock, i take the carbs apart and clean everything out right? what gaskets or o-rings do i need? and i can leave the carb on the bike to do this? and about the petcock, how do i go about that?
thank you for the help and quick replies so far

Petcock is easy, but get a rebuild kit and be sure to assemble it right (and hook up the hoses correctly to avoid PVILR)

As for the carb, I haven't had to do it yet but it looks like it would not be easy to do on the bike. You should really only "need" to do the float & float valve.. But if you have it off already, why not do the whole thing?

bike takes 1.04 us gallons

it's more than that. the SH has an oil-sump larger than some cars. i'm in my backyard and the service manual is sitting on my bike. i'll go get it and we'll see what it says.... <tick-tock, tick-tock>. hmmm. less than i thought... [4.1 US qt (3.9 l) after drainage/filter change]. [4.8 US qt (4.5 l) at disassembly]. i need a spell-checker integrated into this forum CMS.

trying to get a crush-washer that fits from my local NAPA is not possible. i finally broke down and order 10 count crush washers for both my bikes. it beats re-using the same crush-washer 3 o-changes in a row. i am fully prepared for my next oil change! thank the Boy Scouts for that. i still can't make anything but the most basic knot, though.

--fred