I recently got an old school 250 honda fourtrax (one of those u can't seem to wear out).  It ran not long ago but it set for a while because of starter problems (or electrical).  It has a kick start so i took the spark plug out and kicked it over a few tiems with great fire coming from the plug.  So i went on to the next stage of getting gas to the piston.  Upon inspecting the carb it had 3 dry rotted lines on it. One hanging from the bottom of the carb that was hooked to nothing, and 2 hooked together on top of the carb which had  T conenctor to it.  I noticed it was out of gas so i went and filled her up at the store and when i did the bottom line just starts flooding gas out (I think its an over flow).  Not knowing all that much about them I got new lines and hooked all 3 together since it seemed like the T was there for some reason.  I took the spark plug out and squirted some startin fluid into the piston and she wanted to fire. So i repeated and sure enough she fired right up and ran wide open because my throttle was hung wide open.  I was happy with the progress but i was gonna take a look at the air filter and when i took the cover off and the entire bottom of the air filter box was filled with gas coming form inside the carb.  I noticed it did this too when i first filled it up (because it had 0 gas in it when i got it) from the bottom line on the carb that was hooked to nothing.  When i first filled it with gas it just started pouring out of the bottom line fast as it oculd so i plugged it off and then the top 2 lines started leaking.  Does anyone have an idea what i need to do to keep it from doing this?  Or what i need to do to loosen up the throttle from wide open.  It obviously runs like this but when u shut it off gas just streams into the air filter.  Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!  

it sounds to me like the float is sticking open. When a carb sits empy or with old gas in it it will gum up. I would remove the carb and take the bottom bowl off and clean all of it will some spray carb cleaner.  The bottom hose is probally just an overflow tube. It diverts the spillage from leaking onto the hot motor.  

you need to take the carb apart and clean it out.

yes it does sound like the floats are sticking, but if they arwe they sticking then there's going to be other things that need to be cleaned out as well.

just don't take the air/fuel mixture screw out
leave it alone and you should be fine on the cleanout and reinstall.  

i took apart the carb and it was in awful shape.  Lots of debris and rust like stuff in it.  My throttle was also hanging so i oiled the thing down and played with it for a long time before it loosened up enough.  I cleaned everything out as well as i could and unhooked the overflow valve and free'd up the floats (yall were right they were stuck).  My throttle is still sticking jsut a little bit on low idle and my back brake pedal (which is all it has) is so stiff its hard to even push down and when i do i have to pull the pedal back up.  I lubed everything visable.  Do you think it could be inside the brakes, because they squeal alot when they do engage.


All and all though, after i i cleaned the carb up as much as i could and put it all back together and a little ether and she fired within a few kicks and didnt smoke and ran like a brand new one.  Now if i can just work out the bugs with the starter not engaging and free up the brake pedal and get a new air filter (the other one detereated) I will have a decent bike for its age and shape its been kept in.  Thanks for the tips guys!  Yall helped me take a freebe machine that someone thought was junk and turn it in to a rideable bike in an hour!  Thanks a million!  

I was also wondering, my choke will not budge at all and i took the wire off that goes into the carb and it was completely seazed up with some nasty rust i soaked it with gun oil, then soaked it more with some gel oil and slapped it back together.  Is this fixable or do I need to just get a new carb so my gas feed won't be hanging and my choke will work properly (not that its really that hard to start).  

u may be able to just replace the choke cable to fix your problem. if you want to replace the carb u can but it might free up after a little use. a good place to find another carb is to keep your eye on ebay motors web site look under parts and acc. click on atv parts there is a lot of good parts there for your bike and sometimes they are really cheap.  

Everyone has the right idea about a stuck float valve and cleaning the junk out of the carb. No one mentioned that you should buy a cheap in-line fuel filter. After you have cleaned the carb there will still be stuff in the gas tank especially if it is a metal tank  

yes it is a metal tank, and all of the honda fourtrax metal tanks rust like there is no tomorrow.

i have one of these at the house.

great running machines.

the choke cable:

you'll have to take some wd40  not gun oil, gun oil isn't thin enough to penetrate.

the choke has a cable running through it, with a small plunger on the end of it.

try to remove the choke cable (carefully) then spray it down with wd40 let it soak for an hour or so, then take a small flat screwdriver and insert it into the slot that the choke cable came out of. carefully try to turn the plunger left and right, work with it and it will break loose eventually.

just be very careful not to damage the carburetor and the threads for the choke cable.

the brakes:

jack the atv up and remove the right rear wheel.
remove the two axle nuts,
there is a dust and water cover over the brake drum.
remove it carefully it should have 8mm screws holding it on.

once you have it removed then remove the brake drum, (this ay take some persuading with a hammer and brake cleaner)

once you have it off take the brake cleaner and spray the springs and working mechanism... be prepared this is a nasty job!!!

once you have it sprayed down remove the brake lever from the rear of the brake backing plate. (the thing the brake cable goes through)

remove the brake shoes, and slide the brake rod out, spray it down, lightly if necessary sand the hole it came out of. just make sure it is clean.

inspect the brake shoes and replace if nbecessary, and reinstall.