What now?!

[dbeardslee]

Ernie - Yes, they're stock '79 carbs. To get the plastic floats to the right height I had to bend the tab quite a bit. I wasn't real happy with the way they were making contact with the pin on top of the needle due to the angle of the bend. On a couple of the old floats I had to do a little filing on the sleeves as there were some burrs present. The one I got from mikes xs doesn't have the sleeve, but it moved nice and easy. Whenever I take the floats out I always run a pipe cleaner (the wire kind) through the mounting pin hole to get any varnish out and to make sure they move easily.

When I boiled the brass floats, they didn't seem too awful bouyant in the water. They didn't sink completely, but there wasn't much of them sitting above water level. I'm going to give the petshops a try, and see if I can find an aquarium pump that will provide adequate vacuum for my little chamber. Using an automotive ac pump I was able to pop the dents out of a small can of PVC glue (pretty heavy metal and my initial test), but it hasn't worked on the floats. Even if I can't get 'em popped back out, I may try setting them to a more aggressive height and see what happens. I'll be ordering viton tipped needles from Mikes XS later today, so that may help as well.

I may take a run up to SSK this weekend. It's a place I used to have my reserve parachute packed, and they have a vacuum chamber for checking automatic activation devices. Maybe they'll let me put my floats in there for a few minutes.

[boyat68]

http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18111

dbeardslee:

"I wish I could see what was going on inside the chambers with the bowls secured ".

You can feel what is going on inside the bowls using the method outlined in the pictures in the above cited thread. That is the way that I finally found that the plastic floats were sticking in several places and allowed me to fix each, one at a time. One other thing that I found out was the edges of the back tang was sharp and digging into the soft metal of the hinge tower and causing problems. I rounded the edges of the tangs and that stopped that.

Note: Just click on each picture for a bigger view.

[egsols]

When I boiled the brass floats,

When I boiled mine they tasted kinda of bland

Anywho, one of mine is dented but when I put them all in hot water (at the same time) they all floated the same. What I mean is they all showed the same bouyancy. I believe that's what is critical to ensure when you set them at the same height they cut off the fuel at the same level, in each carb. The other thing I wanted to check was to ensure none of the floats had leaks. If you put them in hot water they will hiss if there are any pinholes, they will also eventually sink.

If they all float at the same level, I wouldn't be too concerned about dents.

[XSPastor]

Float bowl window?

Reading this thread has gotten me thinking about something. Has anyone ever tried to modify the float bowls on these carbs to add a glass window? I've seen them on car carbs. A nice big window would let us check fuel level and diagnose sticking floats. With the amount of this site that is dedicated to carbs and most of that (seemingly) to leaking float valves, there could be a considerably large market to be tapped by a crafty individual...

[CatatonicBug]

I think some kind of clear float bowl would just look pretty cool. Not just for diagnosing problems, but for aesthetics

[egsols]

Too bad they didn't make these for our bikes

http://www.kingslynnscootershop.co.u...lear-786-p.asp

[XSPastor]

Very Cool, egsols! I wonder if anyone in our group has the access to manufacturing equipment that could mold us some clear float bowl covers...

I'm sure that practically every XSive would want a set.

[CatatonicBug]

My dad owns his own precision machining company. I have asked him if he could do this. I'll let you guys know what he says.

[XSPastor]

Yeah! Cool. Clear float bowls would make diagnosing carb problems much easier. You could easily see dirt in the gas, sticking floats, leaky float valves, float bowl fuel level, etc. Of course, they would look really neat too.

[CatatonicBug]

Well, here's the answer... Not exaclty what I had hoped for, but it would be possible.

"This is just a rough estimate but I have a lot of experience in this so it’s pretty close. The mold cost would be around $3500.00 and the per piece price would be around $0.20 to $0.30 each with a 2000 part minimum. So with shipping and everything you would need to sell at least 1000 pieces for at least $5.00 to break even."

Or, if we use the price listed on the one linked above, they would be about $26 each plus shipping, and we'd have to sell at least 160 of them to break even.

[XSPastor]

Let's do the math:
3,500 set-up fee
600 to make 2,000 at .30 each
4,100 total

Hmmmm... So, assuming that most guys would order a set of four, 205 people would have to order these at 20 bucks a set to break even?

I'll bet 205 people would want these. Twenty dollars for a set of them seems reasonable. If we raised the price to 25, we could cover the costs with fewer buyers. If you can get us a firm quote so we know the exact cost, then we could start a list and manufacture them when we're sure we can cover our costs. What do you all think? Am I nuts?

[CatatonicBug]

Be aware that the one linked above sells for $26 EACH. Not as a set of 4. Also, the startup costs would have to come out of somebody's wallet, and mine is empty.

[XSPastor]

Be aware that the one linked above sells for $26 EACH. Not as a set of 4.

Wow. Ok. That means only 41 people would need to order and pre-pay to get this to happen?

[CatatonicBug]

Yep. If that was possible, we could make it happen. Of course the more people order them, the lower the price could be. I doubt we're going to find many people willing to shell out $104 plus shipping for 4 little plastic bowls though.

However, I do have a merchant paypal account, so I would be able to take credit cards via PayPal.

[tarzan]

I'd be interested in those bowls.That would be cool.I suppose I could machine some myself.But machining would cost a lot more if there was a large lot.But for a small lot it may be less expensive to machine them than to pay for the upfront costs of molds.Also molding would be easier to make sure thay are clear,due to the heating and cooling process.However acrylic can be machined then heated to make it clear,but I dont know if it is impervious to gas.I'm sure we could find a suitable material to machine that would work.
Well anyway I never thought about clear bowls before.Great idea.If you get enough interest to actually make them I'm in for some.