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Float Bowl Drain Screw Stripped

  • Thread starter Thread starter fast eddie
  • Start date Start date
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fast eddie

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Float Bowl Drain Screw Stripped - try saying that 5 times fast!
So the drain screw on the left-most carb is stripped, it sort-of screws in, but stays in with the help of some teflon tape. I'm worried that one day it's going to just fall out, probably a long way from home.
Can I just unscrew the float bowl and replace it with the carbs in place, or am I looking at a complete removal job?
 
You're lucky it's on the outer edge. I've removed all four bowls and replaced them with the carbs installed. Need some tools, like a stubby phillips, a phillips socket, or a 90 degree phillips. Hope the bowls have been off lately because you can't use an impact driver to break them loose. (unless you're very, very, good)
 
Stripped Drain Screw

Stripped Drain Screw

Once the bowl is removed per David Hasselhoff's (?!) proceedure, if you have a replacement bowl then excellent and read no further. If not...

... then you can try this demon fix. You can restore the threads using plumber's epoxy putty to build up material around the semi-stripped hole. It comes in a tube with the epoxy resin in paste form surrounding a core of hardener. Cut off a small slice and mix the putty with your fingers (gloves recommended) until the colour is uniform. Clean and dry the opening and fill the hole or at least the threaded portion. Pot time is about 10 mins. (check the instructions.) It fully hardens in about an hour but leave it overnight. Run a tap (M6, I believe) through the hole in the morning and it should be as good as new. Epoxy is gas impervious. I'd replace the rubber gasket on the drain screw and tighten the screw till snug. Should work.

The putty is handy to keep around anyway. I used it to fill a pinhole leak in the tank on my Kawi Concours. Still holding a year later...
 
retap

retap

If the epoxy route doesn't tickle your fancy, why not just drill them out to the next biggest size and retap it for a bolt. 5/16" or the metric equavilent, 8mm. ( I think that's big enough, check to be sure)....Mike
 
Re: retap

Re: retap

mikemilburn said:
If the epoxy route doesn't tickle your fancy, why not just drill them out to the next biggest size and retap it for a bolt. 5/16" or the metric equavilent, 8mm. ( I think that's big enough, check to be sure)....Mike
Click to expand...

I would skip the epoxy route, and just drill and retap, easy to do, and you'll still be screwing into metal instead of epoxy. I'm sure either way would work though.
 
One caution about enlarging the opening -- you may not have enough of a seating surface left at the base of the carb bowl to hold a large enough gasket to prevent leaks. I'd sugest replacing the bowl, there must be lots out there available dirt cheap.

SV
 
Re: Float Bowl Drain Screw Stripped

You could replace the bowl. You could smear a little bit of J. W. Weld on the float bowl threads for the drain screw and then turn the screw into the wet J.B.Weld. Let it set for a day and then reinstall the bowl and leave it at that. You will be able to unscrew the drainscrew if you need to at a later date.
Or, I've had bikes that did not come with drain screws for the floatbowls. All they had was a rubber plug that you pushed in. There isnt any stress on a drain plug, so as youre doing now (wrapping it with teflon tape to make it seat tight) will probably be fine forever. It isnt going to vibrate out with the tape around it, so I wouldnt worry about it.

Earl



fast eddie said:
Float Bowl Drain Screw Stripped - try saying that 5 times fast!
So the drain screw on the left-most carb is stripped, it sort-of screws in, but stays in with the help of some teflon tape. I'm worried that one day it's going to just fall out, probably a long way from home.
Can I just unscrew the float bowl and replace it with the carbs in place, or am I looking at a complete removal job?
Click to expand...
 
Or, I've had bikes that did not come with drain screws for the floatbowls. All they had was a rubber plug that you pushed in.
Click to expand...

Heck, I ran for about 12,000 miles with a rubber plug in the oil drain. Didn't leak a bit and was easy to change the oil.
 
Jethro said:
Or, I've had bikes that did not come with drain screws for the floatbowls. All they had was a rubber plug that you pushed in.
Click to expand...

Heck, I ran for about 12,000 miles with a rubber plug in the oil drain. Didn't leak a bit and was easy to change the oil.
Click to expand...

WOW, glad it worked, cause it would really suck if it came out.
 
This happened to me, and I just drilled and tapped it to 7mm. (Happened to have a 7mm tap in my set.)

I bought the shortest 7mm bolt I could find at the local hardware store, but I had to grind off part of its length because it was still too long. I also bought a 1/4 inch fiber gasket and reamed it out slightly to fit around the bolt.

Works fine, but it's a pain to dig out an 11mm wrench just for that one oddball bolt.

If you went to the far more common 8mm thread, there might not be a whole lot of sealing surface left, and not much metal left around the threads.
 
Thanks for the input guys; I think my concern about tapping anything would be excess material finding its way into the carb? I think I'll just go for the 'remove in place' option. If that fails, well, what the heck, let's take the whole thing off, it's about time I learned what carbs are made of.
 
Float Bowl Drain Screw Stripped, no problem. remove the bowl fill hole with jbweld. let dry then reinstall.

when you get some time head for the bike junk yards. you will need to have the old bowl with you, but you will find a match. one good thing about bike carbs some of the other brands of bikes use the same carbs. most of the bike bone yards here have striped down carbs. every one is looking for the pilot jet screw. of corse thay dont take any carb dip to free up the screw befor removing. so thay end up braking it.
 
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