Which is correct?

[prosnomonkey]

I am replacing the float needles in my carbs as part of a surging issue. I ordered what I thought were the correct needles from Z1, but when I got them, I discovered they were much longer than the ones I have in there already. The orginal sits flush with the needle seat and the new one sticks out quite a way. Which one is correct?

 

[robertbarr]

Are you telling us that there's a needle in that second (right-hand) carb's inlet seat?

Give me a couple of hours and I can dig out and examine my guinea pig 450 carbs.

 

[prosnomonkey]

Sorry, No there is no needle in there. Here is a picture with each needle seated. On the left is the one from Z1, on the right is what came out of the carb when I took it apart

 

[Steve]

If you can bend the tab in the middle of the floats to get the proper float height, it doesn't really matter much which one you use.

.

 

[robertbarr]

The needles in my guinea pig carbs are identical to the one on the right. As Steve said, if you can get the float height correct, it shouldn't matter -- but that's kind of a lot of 'adjustment' for those float tabs.

 

[Nessism]

Those Z1 needles are not a good match. You would have to bend the snot out of the float tang to get anywhere near the proper fuel level.

 

[JC8865]

Z1 sells K&L stuff...junk in my opinion..when it comes to carbs go wih OEM stuff...Sudco sells genuine Mikuni parts,you get the needle and seat as an assembly,each will have a number on the seat like 2.0 etc telling you the size..K&L stuff the needles are longer and the springs inside them are really weak. Mikuni stuff is more expensive but well worth it..you'll save yourself a lot of headaches by staying away from K&L parts.



JC

 

[prosnomonkey]

I'm sending th Z1 parts back as there is no way I can adjust the floats to the proper level with those needles.

A question tho: should the springs in the needles be stiff or soft? I'm just wondering if I even need to replace them

 

[eil]

A question tho: should the springs in the needles be stiff or soft? I'm just wondering if I even need to replace them

They should be relatively soft. An unofficial test for these is to flip the carbs upside down. The weight of the floats alone should not depress the needle much, if at all. But very gentle pressure on the floats should compress the spring and seat the needle.