86 Spree Fuel Issues

[Zedowine]

I recently bought a 86 Spree for the wife, went through the regular cleaning of the carb, fuel tank, etc and the thing ran great until it started leaking gas out of the carb overflow. Rebuilt the original carb (replaced float and needle) and still the same so went to the petcock and replaced that and the problem was still there.
For the past month I have cleaned and rebuilt the carb 3 times,cleaned the fuel tank, replaced 2 petcocks and fuel lines, installed a new aftermarket carb and made an intake adapter to run a phbg 17.5 just to test to see if it was a carburetor issue and it still leaks when its running and when stopped with all these changes.
Am I missing something that could be causing this issue because I am running out of ideas and patience with this thing
Thank you in advance!

[motormike]

I see nothing about you installing a fuel filter.

[Zedowine]

I see nothing about you installing a fuel filter.

The tank fuel filter was replaced when changing petcocks and i added an inline filter too. All the gaskets to the reeds and carb were also replaced with new ones.

[zz28zz]

Did you look closely at the needle length and compare to orig needle?

I'm fighting a similar issue with fuel level being too high but not high enough to come out overflow. I lost my first needle (original??). Got a replacement and had issues with high fuel level. Ordered another float and needle. That needle was shorter than my prev replacement and the fuel level was waay to high and came out overflow. Went with the new float and the first replacement needle (the longer needle). That got it closer but still not low enough for eng to be happy. Currently looking for a slightly longer needle to try. Sucks the plastic floats can't be adjusted like the older metal ones. When I had the shorter needle installed and held carb upside down with float bowl removed, I could see the float was not level (dropped down past level). With longer needle it's parallel with carb bottom. That's how it's supposed to look but isn't working for me for some reason.

If you have a hand held vacuum pump, you can operate the fuel petcock and troubleshoot fuel level issues without starting the eng. Doesn't take much vacuum to turn on the fuel petcock.