Yes...I too mucked up a carb cleaning and need help

[dougger]

I followed Maans Smit's cleaning directions to the letter on my '80 XS11 special. Remarkably, I don't have any left over parts and they all went back to the holes from which they came.....problem is fuel is pouring from #4 and the engine is idling at about 5,000 RPM. I just wanted to shut it down before I messed with the idle screws, which I backed out 1.25 turns form a soft seat. Is there an adjustment for the float pin on this model? Help!!

[John]

The flooding issue may be that the floats can drop too far when the carbs are empty, and the needle can get cocked in the seat, and fuel will pour past.

[dougger]

so do I just take the bowl off and see?

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Douger,

I haven't recently read Hans instructions, but did you get any kits or did you just take things apart and clean and put back together? The 80's have the PRESS IN float valve seats and use a rubber O-ring to seal it, and it can be damaged, etc. and cause a leak. It uses the Viton tipped floats valves which seal nicely, but if you didn't replace with new, could have a ring/groove worn into the tip? Also, did you make sure your floats all FLOAT?? Floats can also get stuck against the bowl edges/sides, did you try tapping with the rubber/plastic end of a large screwdriver or small hammer against the side of the bowl to see if you could get it to stop leaking by dislodging the stuck float?? There is a tang on the edge of the metal float frame where it hits the float post, it sets/controls how far down the float drops, you can bend that tang to keep it from dropping too far which could cause it to allow the float valve to drop too far out of the seat and get angled and then trapped!

Cleaning is just one part of the technique, then there is BENCH SYNCHING and then vacuum synching. Also could have been a simple matter of the main central idle screw not turned back far enough, but could also be unbalanced carbs!

We have a photo somewhere here that illustrates this, I'll find it and add it in a few minutes!




T.C.

Sorry for thumbnails, click on them to see larger pictures, damn photodump!

[tarzan]

You might not have to take it off yet.You can knock on the side of the bowl with the plastic end of a screwdriver,or what ever you have that wont dent anything.That sometimes will knock the float loose.If it does hope it doesnt drop that much and hang up again.Also if it does come loose you at least know exactly what your problem is.Then you can adjust float drop.
That being said,I just got my carbs working right on my SG a week ago or so.It was leaking gas into the airbox.It actually ran pretty good but was hard to start.Anyway,I found I had a float a little twisted and my floats were adjusted to .900".The book says 23mm or.906.I went back and made sure all the floats were straight,by straight I mean both sides of float masure the same to gasket surface.I then set all floats to .92".No more gas in airbox,starts easy,and runs great through out all ranges.
Hope that helps

[tarzan]

It looks like it's hard to type faster than a cat!hehe

[dougger]

hmmmmm....interesting, the reason that I attempted to do this in the first place was because fuel was periodically dumping from #4. Maybe I dislodged all of the crap that had been stopping the fuel from passing through the pin. when setting the height you measure from the top of the gasket to the tang or to the bottom of the pin?

Thanks, again for your help.

[John]

Float drop is just a matter of putting an eyeball on the needle when you have the bowls off, and watching to see if the needle cocks or stays true. You will see the tang you need to bend to adjust this. It contacts one of the float towers.

[boyat68]

Originally posted by dougger
when setting the height you measure from the top of the gasket to the tang or to the bottom of the pin?

Thanks, again for your help.

The measurement is made from the bottom of the float to the float bowl seating surface with out the gasket. See the manual 4-5 or Clymers 152 pictorial 33.

Remember the measurement is taken with the carbs upside down, so the above that says bottom is really the total area of the float

[dbeardslee]

Dougger - Here's a link to a thread with LOTS of options for float height guages.

[dougger]

Wow....who knew that you could come up with so many ways to gauge the floats and none which I understand!! What I think I am supposed to do is make sure that the arms of the floats are even and true, then (with the floats and needles seated with the bank of carbs upside down) measure the top, or bottom, since it's upside down, of the float so that it is, +/- .001mm, 1mm from the top of the gasket? sorta, kinda, maybe!?!? AAAAARRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!

[egsols]

Does this help?

[dbeardslee]

Egsols - I like the graphic - Niiiice.

Dougger - you're right about the arm needing to be straight. I always check mine on both sides of the float, just to make sure. Some people check 'em with the gasket in, but it's going to add about 1mm to your measurement. Whatever you use as a guage, make sure it is as close to perpendicular with the gasket surface as you can get it when measuring. The 'arm' of your guage needs to hang over the highest point on the top of the float (when it's upside down). I allow a little extra in my measurement so that I can see light between the guage and the float. They're very easy to push down, so I don't want to make actual physical contact with the float.

[dougger]

NOW I get it....Thanks Ernie!! Stay tuned, I'm sure that I'll screw something else up!! BTW I was able to reset the idle using the main thumb screw adjusment. What is the spec idle speed? I set it at about 1500RPM Feels okay....any thoughts?

[egsols]

Specs 1000-1100 or 1050. When they are synced they can idle down to about 700-800. Mine idles around 900 cold then goes to about 1000 when fully warm.