float bowl screw

[ALB80-850]

Greetings all,

OK, here is my latest idea. The float bowl screw is without a doubt an oddball of the highest order. I haven't been able to find an aftermarket source. The size is M6 x 7mm with a .8 pitch. What I intend to do is, drill out the drain hole and retap to the next standard size. Be it metric or standard. My question is: Is there any reason this won't work? If I'm not mistaken, there are 2 slots milled on either side of the drain hole and would be removed almost entirely by resizing this hole. Any ideas or comments would be appreciated. I realize this is a lot of work for something you won't be able to see all that well, but new SS screws would be so much easier to work with. The stock drain screws seem to be awfully soft and I haven't come across any that been buggered up yet. Thanks.

Andy

[Nessism]

Sounds like a lot of work to me. What is the actual problem? Leakage? Buggered screw head?

The groove in the carb body is to hold a matching plastic gasket under the screw. I don't think the groove is particularly important since some other carb models use simple o-rings instead. Certainly the hole can be machined oversize but I think an easier solution would be to just order some new OE screws and the proper gaskets.

[ALB80-850]

The screw heads are buggered up. The few sets of carbs I've worked on all had o-rings. They did't leak, just ugly. I want to put SS there to prevent rust in the event of any water getting in there. I'll try to get a picture of what I'm talking about. Thanks for the imput Mr.Nessism.

Andy

[basic]

unless i'm mistaken the groove to which he is referring is not the offset one at the base of the float bowl but the two that are on the inside of the threads on oppisite sides.

[anikmankar]

the carb body as such is very soft and so is the float chamber. putting SS type screws is not an issue but being hard can eat up the body. It would be cheaper to buy new screws that rethread or oversize these chambers.

(my thoughts)

[Matchless]

Hi,
My thoughts.
The screws are to drain the fuel from the float bowl and the slots are to allow fuel to start flowing out with the screws partially loosened. if you retap and replace with stainless steel and use an o-ring as a gasket, it may just mean that you will have to completely remove the screw to drain the bowls.
I should have done that when serviced did my carbs as those screws, especially one had been mangled by the PO.

[ALB80-850]

Matchless,

Thats kinda what I had thought, allowing fuel to drain without removing the screw. I am going to try to drill out and re-tap as soon as I order the right size drill and tap, probably by the weekend. Thanks for the info.

Andy