Last weekend after riding hard for about 30 minutes, my Hawkeye wouldnt restart too easy. Seemed like it was flooded cause I could smell gas. Looked underneath and gas was flowing out of a clear tube from the bottom of the carburetor. There is a spring tension screw where the tube goes into the bottom of the carb, and I tried to adjust it in and out but the gas continued to flow. After about 10 minutes it finally stopped.

I couldnt find anything in the owners manual. Is this a normal occurrence? Does anyone have experience with this? I dont like gas pouring on the ground just under a hot machine.

Thanks

GE
East TX

 

Ive had this Happen on other machines but not on the hawkeye, sounds like the float was stuck inside the carb, if this happens again use the plastic end of a screwdriver to tap on the bottom of the carb and this should let it go back to normal, there were some guys in this forum that had sticking floats, but im pretty sure that is the problem, or it just got flooded by riding it hard, its called boiling fuel from the crb and this can happen also.

 

I had to tap on mine with a ratchet I think the float is stuck also. where at in East Texas? I'm in longview

 

the float is sticking open and maybe becasue of dirt in the bowl. if it stays open it could flood the base of the engine as well.

 

The needle and seat may be worn,is there gas in the oil? A way to keep this from happening is to turn the gas off when machine is not in use

 

All great comments thanks.

When this first happened my son and I thought about the float sticking but tapped on the top rather than the bottom. I will try the bottom if it happens again.
Right now, I am headed out to check the oil for gas and locate the fuel cutoff.

What would that screw be at the bottom of the carb where the plastic tube connects? It looks like some kind of adjustment like an idle screw. When you pinch it all the way down the gas still goes thru.

This little Hawkeye was for my wife and it runs great...but I probably should have bought a second Sportsman 500 instead. Oh well.

TxMagnum we are just down the road from you in Henderson.

Thanks again I appreciate the help

 

w/out looking at it i would say the idle adjustment if it has a spring on it and the screw is like a philip head or has notches on the screw to turn w/ your fingers.

 

The screw is to drain the fuel bowl, I'll bet the needle and seat are bad, did you check your engine oil is it overfull, smell like gas? One thing to remember is if the above happens you are sitting on a bomb with one wrong backfire.

 

this is too funny... i had the same problem this weekend... i was charging through a huge snow pile and it flooded out... i went to change the spark plug and noticed that the plug cap had broken (the internal metal sleeve that connects to the plug cap)... the fuel was pouring out of the bottom drain hose... i believe my problem was what rickeyparker was saying about boiling the fuel though.. has not done this before and i rode about 30 miles yesterday with no problems...

 

the screw at the bottom of the rubber hose with the spring is the carb bowl drain. you unscrew it to drain teh bowl. that should be screwed all the way in. if fule stiff is comming out i think it would be a stuck float.