Blackbird fuel leak into engine

[Lee]

about two weeks ago, i moved the blackbird off its center stand and onto the side stand.
when i came back there was a pool of petrol under it.
At first, i thought this was down to me overfilling it however, when the bike was put back onto the main stand, the leak continued.

When the ignition keys were turned, it was noticed that the neutral light was not working.
I figured that i would fix this first then look into the fuel leak.

The fault was traced to the switch which is located near the front drive sprocket. When the switch was removed from the left hand crank case with a socket, petrol came gushing out ! The engine and gearbox was full of petrol.

I was bamboozled as to how it had got in there however, I was given good advice by a fellow bird owner.
The fault was on the fuel tap diaphragm. Fuel was running the wrong way down the vacuum pipe and into the manifold.
from here, it leaked into the bores, past the rings and into the engine.
Good job I never started it !

Diaphragm has been replaced, engine flushed with oil, new oil filter and oil put in, neutral light switch replaced.
Just thought I would share this on here in case it happens to anyone else

[Deleted]

Jebus, that was a close call.

[titus]

Jesus Soapy, that was a lucky find... On the plus side it gave it a good flush out :-)

[David]

Did you distil/separate the oil & petrol for reuse.

Engine coolant has been known to be recycled.

This stuff does a good job, however, it's more expensive than petrol.

[merrykoala]

I had similar issues with the fuel tap on my old GPZ. Used to flood the cylinders to the point that they would be hydraulically locked.

[Lee]

So far so good. I've done just over 500 miles on the bike since the repairs were carried out. Touch wood, all is fine now.