My Carburetor is Leaking at the Throttle Shaft

I hear this quite often. Customers are usually looking for some kind of kit to seal the shaft, but the shaft isn’t the problem. What is most likely happening is that there is too much fuel entering the venturi, running down the inside of the carburetor, hitting the throttle valve, then leaking out of the shaft. Now the throttle shaft cannot be totally sealed, or it wouldn’t move. What is causing too much fuel to enter the carburetor?

• The float could be absorbing fuel becoming too heavy. This would cause the needle and seat to stay open.
• The float is adjusted wrong.
• The needle and seat is dirty.
• There is too much fuel pressure. This can sometimes occur when you replace the fuel pump and the new pump is putting out too much pressure. This happens more often than it should. Test your fuel pump. You can also add a fuel pressure regulator.
• One other possibility is that the fuel is splashing over the top perhaps from a rough road. Made sure you didn’t leave out any baffles.

The bottom line is that the fuel leaking out of the throttle shaft is probably due to the carburetor flooding. The solution is to get a carburetor kit and rebuild the carburetor and test the float. Now, don’t discount the throttle shaft being bad. It could be worn enough to require bushings. You can test this by moving the shaft back and forth to see if there is any slack. Chances are that if you notice slack, then there is probably too much.