My 2005 concourse had not been used for about a year before I bought it. It ran fine when I took it home. It started running worse and worse until I was unable to start it because there was fuel in 2 of the cylinders. The petcock had a small leak from the body so I replaced it. I noticed that there is no off position on the petcock, and fuel would flow freely when in the Primary position with the engine off. It does not flow freely in the Reserve position.
I pulled the carbs and cleaned them, I did not replace parts just washed them with carb cleaner. I keep the petcock in the Reserve position at night because I know it doesn't leak but after a short ride the other evening, It started running rough. I shut it off and tried to restart it about 5 minutes later, it was flooded and I had to hold the throttle all the way open to get it to run. I parked it and tried to start it about an hour later, that's when I discovered that it had fuel in the cylinders.

Can anybody tell me if the new petcock is working correctly since it flows on Primary without the engine running? Are my float valves bad?

Thanks in advance.

Oh boy!  First things first .. for god's sake STOP WHAT YOUR DOING  and STEP AWAY FROM THE BIKE!!
Your going to.. if not already ruin your engine due to whats called Hydrolock.
Here,  Read this and watch the video:
http://forum.cog-online.org/index.php/topic,26478.0.html

And another thing- do not clean your carbs with carb cleaner. That is a sure way to ruin your diaphragms.
Once your done reading come back and we can talk more.

No, it's not ruined. I only touched the starter and when it would not go, I stopped.

How do you know?  You hydrolocked your bike without a doubt.
 That is all it takes- that one little stop. Now you have to do the bent rod test that you see in the video. Do that next to be sure you did not bend a rod.
The starter is far stronger than the connecting rods. If it stopped- then you hydrolocked the engine.
Let us hope you did not bend a rod.

PRI is prime, fuel will flow non stop to fill the carb bowls. There is no off position, just ON , RES, and PRI. In the ON position fuel should only flow with bike running. It works on vacuum.

If your cylinders are filling with fuel, the float needles are not seating  properly, allowing fuel past them.

Just wanted to add the RES and ON both work from engine vacuum.  No fuel should flow when in either of those positions with the engine off.  Only use PRIME for short amounts of time, like 30 seconds, to refill the carb bowls after the bike has set for a long period of time or if you ran the bike out of gas.  Don't leave it in the prime position.

Do the hydrolock test, as suggested and let us know the results.

Please ghassman. Do as we say.  Do not try and start your engine until you come back and learn some more. Do not use PRI. DO NOT put fuel to that bike period. Remove the gas tank and leave it off the bike. I assume when you replaced the petcock you disposed of the old (no good) gas correct?
Your carbs were already in need of servicing and you spraying carb cleaner in it  was not a good idea.  You cannot use carb cleaner on a CV carb (unless you disassemble and remove any rubber parts first) because carb cleaner ruins rubber (you have  rubber parts in a CV carb).  Did you remove the rubber parts (diaphragms) before spraying carb cleaner in them?
 Turning the petcock to PRIME was also not a good idea when you have non functioning float valves and no overflow tubes. (something else you need to learn and read about: overflow tubes)
The best thing to do is:
   Ask questions (and read the forums) here first before doing anything other than the 'Bent Rod Test'
Let us know. We are here to help. We know everything there is to know about your bike.


 
 

Please ghassman. Do as we say.  Do not try and start your engine until you come back and learn some more. Do not use PRI. DO NOT put fuel to that bike period. Remove the gas tank and leave it off the bike. I assume when you replaced the petcock you disposed of the old (no good) gas correct?
Your carbs were already in need of servicing and you spraying carb cleaner in it  was not a good idea.  You cannot use carb cleaner on a CV carb (unless you disassemble and remove any rubber parts first) because carb cleaner ruins rubber (you have  rubber parts in a CV carb).  Did you remove the rubber parts (diaphragms) before spraying carb cleaner in them?
 Turning the petcock to PRIME was also not a good idea when you have non functioning float valves and no overflow tubes. (something else you need to learn and read about: overflow tubes)
The best thing to do is:
   Ask questions (and read the forums) here first before doing anything other than the 'Bent Rod Test'
Let us know. We are here to help. We know everything there is to know about your bike.

 

Take Daytona_Mike's advice. These guys know their stuff. It may come across sometimes as being arrogance, but it ain't. Some of their knowledge has come by paying a "stupid tax" and doing as you are. Listen to them and learn from them. These guys and gals are your best friends when it comes to your Connie.

Ghassman,

Short answer - YES, you need new float needles. If you had the skill and wherewithall to get the carbs off, dissassemble, and clean them, this should be pretty straight forward. Murp of Murph's Kits makes a petcock conversion that will give you an 'off' position.

There are a few articles available showing how to put overflow tubes in the carbs which I'd highly recommend. I have the same bike, had the same issue at 2500 miles. No bent rod, just passed 65K last week.

Good luck.

No replies from ghassman since Nov 1?
Hope the bikes ok.

Ride safe, Ted

All is well. I rebuilt the carbs, put them back in and the bike works wonderfully. I'm in Arizona and enjoying the winter biking season.

Thank you all for your input.

Well I am glad and yet puzzled. You did not know how the petcock works.  You cleaned the carbs  wrong but you rebuilt them correctly ! 
Glad you got it going. I assume you did not install over flow tubes and you did not check for a bent rod....
Good  luck.

The person that I bought the bike from this summer said that he had gone through the carbs, he hadn't. I was not familiar with this particular petcock, It's the stupidest one I have ever seen. I did check the rods, everything was OK. I've cleaned lots of carbs with carb cleaner, just keep it away from the inlet valves. These valves were completely ruined. I replaced them and everything works properly. No more fuel leaking.

Thank you