1998 Triumph Thunderbird Fuel Leak And Poor Fueling Issues

Afternoon guys and girls. Newbie here and I've come across your site due to a sick Thunderbird.

It's a 98 model and have had no trouble with it until now. Went into the garage and was greeted with a strong smell of petrol, on closer inspection I found it was leaking from the over flow pipe on left hand side of the air box. Turning the fuel tap to "off" has stopped it for now but obviously theres a problem.

Also when I ride it now it's very buckaroo like on steady throttle and small low rev throttle openings, if I get the revs up and pin it she flys as normal.

I'm pretty sure the two are related and that's the reason I'm here. HELP!

Thanks in advance for any info you can supply.

 

Thanks for the reply Chrispy,

WOW what a pain in the arse it is to get just the airbox off! I did in the end with ALOT of swearing and i also removed the carbs to clean them out and also see if the floats were stuck.
There was no real grime in there and the float pins seems to move freely, i used carb cleaner to spruce them up, i also checked the diaphragms and there intact with no splits.
Put it all back together with a little more swearing and there is no difference, just as it was before?

Any other suggestions:upyeah:

 

Thanks for the advice guys, looks like i better get it into bits again
I did think that the pressurised carb cleaner can may have dislodged any dirt. Oh well I will take the carbs to work and get the air line on them and give them a proper blow out.

 

We'll after a little time away from the Triumph I've finally got my arse in to gear and had another look! I removed the one way fuel overflow valve and was greated with a loud whoooosh even after it's been stood not run for a long time. Thought I may have found a simple fix and went for a ride, no surging or bucking! BUT lack of power too, found that it was only running on cylinders 1&3 number 2 down pipe was cold. Tonight I found that number 2 plug was dead (no spark) replaced all 3 plugs, all sparking and went for a ride, power is back but so is the surging and bucking albeit not as bad.