Piaggio liberty 125 '99 fuel oil leak

Hi all.

Complete novice here I'll admit. Got a piaggio liberty 125 99 reg from a friend who got it cheap on eBay. Already replaced the rear fairing as it was cracked and changed the spark plug in it.

I've currently got an ongoing issue with a leak of what looks like fuel and oil leaking from the carb over flow when the bike is sitting after a short drive.

I'm a community carer so my day consists of about 20-30 short drives.

It normally leaves a little puddle so I know where I've been before.

I've no clue what needs doing to it. But it's costing me more than it should be. Tempted to just get rid of it cheap and pick up one that's not leaking. Its got an MOT, but more than half a tank of fuel makes it leak.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated

 

OK, it sounds like the float height in the carburettor needs to be adjusted, as it's currently allowing the fuel to get so high in the float bowl that it's going out of the overflow. If the bike is on a side stand this can make it overflow.

What you need to do is drain the float bowl via the little drain screw (obviously saving the contents). When you have removed the carburettor, open the float bowl and you should find a little metal tab that operates the float needle in between the floats (it usually has the needle attached to it via a small spring).

What needs to happen is that little metal tab needs bending down slightly, so that the float needle closes the valve earlier and cuts off the fuel. Check the float closes the valve by blowing into the fuel inlet while raising the floats and see what the height is of the floats before you make the adjustment. The adjustment is small, so check that the floats close the valve a little earlier then before and are lower than when you first checked.

Re-assemble the carb, fit it back on the bike and test it. That small adjustment should cure the leak. The bit on this video that explains all of this starts at about 3 minutes.