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Ok, so I'm afraid I killed my bike or something. I was getting impatient so I was just practicing going down my driveway with the engine off, in neutral, and then going back up the driveway in 1st slowly. Anyway, so I was going back up the drive way, and I stopped, and maybe I hit something with my foot, but when I looked down there was fluid leaking and pooling on the ground. So I got off to inspect and found that a hose was loose at one end, and was leaking gasoline. So I cut kinked that hose to keep it from leaking more, but it's still leaking from somewhere else, probably wherever it was attached to... can anyway help? The hose is small (about 1' 6" long, and 1/4" thick) and on the left side of the engine on my nighthawk ('82 450). Anyway help would be great, thanks.

I believe that's what the gasoline uses to get from your tank to your carb/engine. So the 'other place' the gas is leaking from may be your gas tank

That's a bummer.

Could also be a carb vent tube, one end is supposed to be open, with a stuck float on a carb.... Does the line with the open end extend down to the bottom of the frame, if so it's prolly a vent line.

Your fuel line comes off the tank petcock then splits to the carbs. There also may be a vacuum line going to a diaphragm valve the petcock. You should be able to tell if the line simply fell off from somewhere.

Don't smoke Turning your petcock to "off" should stop any gas leaks and allow you to investigate with less stress.

Lol, I didn't even think about turning it to 'off'. I don't think it's coming from the tank directly, it looks like it's coming from the carbs somewhere, and it's leaking from the hose, and wherever the hose was connected, so I don't think it was supposed to be disconnected.

Ok, so you were right J.R. Bob Dobbs, it was a vent tube, but it's leaking gas, why would it be doing that?

so I don't think it was supposed to be disconnected.

Lol no offense man but, what was your first clue? The leaking gas?


Anyways, it could be coming from fuel that was left in the carbs? I'm assuming it's possible. Is it still leaking? How much has leaked thus far?

I actually think one end was supposed to be left open, I was wrong when I said the other end should be connected to something.

Anyway, it was leaking continuosly until I turned the petcock off, and it leaked maybe a 10 oz. total, until I shut it off. It's only leaking out of the left carb vent tube, not the right one.

take a screwdriver handle and tap on the side of the carb that is leaking or a block of wood it is a float hanging or trash under the needle seat usually a few taps will fix it.

If that hose is hanging from the bottom of the carb bowl, it's used to drain the carbs. There is a screw near where the hose attached that is opened for draining, just close that screw tightly and leaking should stop.