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Setting floats, found new photo, and a dumb question.

  • Thread starter Thread starter arveejay
  • Start date Start date
A

arveejay

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Here's another reason to own a factory manual for your bike. I've been setting the floats at the flat spot on the floats for ever. Now that I've actually seen a picture that is not all black and faded like in the clymers and haynes manuals that I've seen, I realize that I need to reset my float levels again as they should have been set at the top of the round part of the float. Now my question, did my incorrect setting of the floats cause a lean or rich situation. I'm happy with the way it runs but, I'm off a bunch according to that pic.
http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=float8od.jpg

If anybody wants to make it automatically come up, please do so. I don't know how.
 
Re: Setting floats, found new photo, and a dumb question.

arveejay said:
Here's another reason to own a factory manual for your bike. I've been setting the floats at the flat spot on the floats for ever. Now that I've actually seen a picture that is not all black and faded like in the clymers and haynes manuals that I've seen, I realize that I need to reset my float levels again as they should have been set at the top of the round part of the float. Now my question, did my incorrect setting of the floats cause a lean or rich situation. I'm happy with the way it runs but, I'm off a bunch according to that pic.
http://img294.imageshack.us/my.php?image=float8od.jpg

If anybody wants to make it automatically come up, please do so. I don't know how.
Click to expand...
You've been setting them rich. The fuel levels would be higher.
 
I can't see your picture but in general, it is far more accurate to set the fuel level using the service fuel measurement. This method is done by making sure the carburetors are sitting level. Then, put a hose on the bowl nipple and open the screw on the bowl. Turn your fuel tap to ON or prime, depending on what type petcock you have. Hold the hose next to the bowl. Do not move the hose UPWARDS as this will mess up the measurement. Fuel will fill the hose to the level it is in the bowl. Tap out air bubbles. Fuel should come to ~1/8" below bowl gasket mating surface.
If the fuel is higher or lower than the ~1/8", then turn gas off, remove bowl and bend tang upwards for less gas in bowl and down for more. Don't bend too much as only a small variation is needed. The tang is the part of the float that comes in contact with the float needle.

The reason I do it this way is that MOST if not ALL floats have been bent incorrectly at some time... this bends the soft material that suspends the float bodies and once bent, measureing their level when the carbs are upsidedown is problematic.

If you have too much fuel in the bowl, it will sometimes overflow and the bike will tend to run rich. If you have too little it will be fuel starved and tend to run lean. How much is a function of how far off you are in the amount of fuel in the bowl.
 
George, I'm not exactly understanding exactly how to do this method...


Assuming you have the carbs level (which i would use a level for) , and fuel hooked up...


QUOTE: Then, put a hose on the bowl nipple and open the screw on the bowl.


How could the screw be opened, with a hose over the nipple. Also, if the hose is just over the nipple, how could you read the fuel level inside the float bowl??


QUOTE: Do not move the hose UPWARDS as this will mess up the measurement. Fuel will fill the hose to the level it is in the bowl. Tap out air bubbles. Fuel should come to ~1/8" below bowl gasket mating surface.


How would you read that the fuel is 1/8" below the gasket mating surface?




confused,


POOT
 
They had a factory tool to do that, gauge to fit into the bowl drain screw opening
 
I made the assumption that you had Mikuni CV carbs... BS34 or BS32. These have a screw on the bowl bottom that when unscrewed, allows gas to flow out of a nipple on the very bottom of the bowl. If you have VM round slide carburetors, then you need to get a 1/4" piece vacuum fitting made to join two vacuum lines together. They are at every autoparts store. You can screw the 1/4" nylon fitting into the 6mm hole in the bowl when the drain screw is removed. It won't leak much. Then connect a CLEAR hose to the exposed vacuum fitting. You turn the gas on and it will fill the bowls. Holding the hose NEXT to the bowl, the gas will assume the same height as it is in the bowl itself. You can then adjust the float tang (as I already described) up or down some to achieve a 1/8" level below the gasket line. This is pretty much the correct level for all VM series carbs... it varies 1mm up or down from this but this 1/8" is good enough.
 
wiredgeorge said:
I can't see your picture but in general, it is far more accurate to set the fuel level using the service fuel measurement. This method is done by making sure the carburetors are sitting level. Then, put a hose on the bowl nipple and open the screw on the bowl. Turn your fuel tap to ON or prime, depending on what type petcock you have. Hold the hose next to the bowl. Do not move the hose UPWARDS as this will mess up the measurement. Fuel will fill the hose to the level it is in the bowl. Tap out air bubbles. Fuel should come to ~1/8" below bowl gasket mating surface.
If the fuel is higher or lower than the ~1/8", then turn gas off, remove bowl and bend tang upwards for less gas in bowl and down for more. Don't bend too much as only a small variation is needed. The tang is the part of the float that comes in contact with the float needle.

The reason I do it this way is that MOST if not ALL floats have been bent incorrectly at some time... this bends the soft material that suspends the float bodies and once bent, measureing their level when the carbs are upsidedown is problematic.

If you have too much fuel in the bowl, it will sometimes overflow and the bike will tend to run rich. If you have too little it will be fuel starved and tend to run lean. How much is a function of how far off you are in the amount of fuel in the bowl.
Click to expand...



That's what's crazy, I made one of those tools and used a level to make sure the carbs were level in the vise. I took 4 bowl screws and drilled holes down the center of each the size of the brass tubing I was going to use to attach a length of clear tubing too, I had to drive the new nipples in with a small hammer, and hooked the tubing to each newly drilled screw, and I tied the hoses to the bracket of the carbs put the gas to it. The fuel levels are all a tiny bit below the spot where the bowl meets the carb bottom and according to the book, that's just where I want it. I'm wondering if my letting the floats compress the springs before measuring them set the readings off and I compensated by measuring them at the wrong part of the float.
 
The spring in the float needle should NOT be compressed when adjusting the floats Just lightly setting on the float tab
 
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