Hey there
I have torn apart my carbs, and I want to boil them in lemon juice, mostly because it sounds fun but they were heavily varnished. My question is the float needles have little rubber arrow heads on them, and they seem to be ok, but two of the four floats have no ‘spring’ to them, not a physical spring, but they dont bounce back like the other two, what is a remedy for this? new needles (not sure if thats what they are called) or ???
thanks in advance
Well there are tiny little springs inside the float needles (the piece with the rubber tip) that allow the bumper to go up and down. If the spring is not working then you’ll want to replace the whole piece, there isn’t a good way to clean the internals.
If you are referring to the floats themselves not swinging well on their pivots (float pins), then soak the pins in cleaner and scrape off any varnish. Do the same with the hole the pin goes through in the float. They can both be cleaned up and lubed and made as good as new.
thanks evan. the floats are sparkling clean, i gave them a lemon bath, and the pins are as well. if the carbs are upside down, and the bowl covers off, two of the floats are bottomed out essentially and two have a slight gap so the are springy when you push on them. I guess it doesnt matter too much i guess? The other issue i had is breaking off the castle nut type tabs on my air/fuel mixture screws, they seem to be pretty darn fragile. and i cant source replacements anywhere…..
Well, yes and no. All four float needles should provide the same ‘spring back’ effect you are describing. If two do not spring back then likely the springs inside the float needle are sticking or stuck. This can cause issues with keeping the bowls filled and metered properly, but sometimes you can get away with it. Throw the carbs on, see if you have any issues, and if so, replace the two needles that aren’t providing spring.
The air/fuel mixture screws with the tab on them are always extremely fragile and break all the time. I’m sure you can source some. I don’t know off hand what carbs are on your bike, but likely those same air fuel mixture screws are used on all sorts of bikes. If you dig around I’d bet you can find new replacements.