random tech tip #2 . fixing a crushed brass float

[TDodge7]

figured this one out today while being extremely bored . if you have brass floats and the sides are crushed in , and you also own a mighty vac vacuum pump then you can put a float inside the little brake bleeding cup that comes with the mighy vac . put the float in and lock the top on , hook up the mighty vac and put your finger over the other hole on the cup . start pumping , the float pops right back out . just did it with 2 crushed floats , neither has any leaks . enjoy

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Dodge,

Sounds great, but photos are needed to make it a REAL TECH TIP!

I'm serious, I've already copied your previous one into the Tips Under Construction section!
T.C.

[TDodge7]

oh , well i'm not going to smash them to try again . i can take pictures of the finished product .

[DGXSER]

How about pics of the rig you used with the fixed ones in it?

[fredintoon]

So, put crushed floats in a vacuum chamber and they pop right out again?
But how crushed were they? Only a little bit I'd say.
Here's what I did with punctured floats part filled with gas.
My plan was to drill a tiny hole, gently heat with a hair dryer to drive the gas out through the hole, then solder the hole shut.
What happened was that my automatic centrepunch, even after being set to make it's mildest impact, punched right through the float to make a 1/8" hole.
Well the gas ran out, no problem, but solder won't fill that huge hole.
But on my shelf there's an aerosol can of builder's foam. I shoved the can's nozzle into the float and foamed the float full. The fix lasted for the week I had to wait for the new floats to arrive. The foam was pretty much gas-eaten When I installed the replacements though.

[TDodge7]

the sides of mine were caved in all the way .... like ) instead of ( . my floats are already in my carbs which are already on my bike , but here's a little picture i did . it only works with floats that don't have holes in them .

[b.walker5]

As long as there are no leaks, there's no reason this wont work for dents. It's simple physics, lowering the pressure outside the float will allow the trapped air inside to exert pressure on the walls and force the dents out. Wont work for creases though, the mighty vac doesnt suck enough Good fix Dodge, good drawing as well.

[TDodge7]

i'm sure most people already knew about the vacuum thing , but i figure some don't and alot of people have mighty vac's . one of my floats actually did have a slight crease , but once i pumped the dent out the first time i re-dented it around the crease and then mighty vac'd the dent out again . now you can't even tell .but again with any fix like this use caution and don't yell at me if you mess it up .

[Geezer]

I always unsoldered the little bump in the middle of the float and and pressurized it with an air nozzle. On the other hand, when i was doing this, the float had already fallen apart and I was putting it back together too.

Geezer

[latexeses]

One of the first questions I asked on this forum was what would cause a crushed float??
I assumed the previous opwner had his eight yead old daughter helping and she had squeezed them while dad wasn't lookng...
However airhose mania is apparently the biggest cause.

This is what that float in question looked like when I pulled it... Havent messed with it except to clean the crud off.



You can see the end of the float is almost a perfect bowl. Even the inside where the float was sealed wasn't untouched.



After reading the post about the Mity-Vac I had to give it a try.
While pulling the vacuum I heard a very satisfying "Ping".. Twice!
Upon removal only the two inboard sides of the floats had popped into shape.




I think my float has too perfect an inward dome to be pulled by the vacumm created by just the mityvac. Any float with anything less than the absolute bowl in it like this float should pop back into shape. The inboard sides of the float popped back with about half of the vacuum applied.

Good tip!!

[skids]

What did that float come from? Not an xs11...

[latexeses]

79SF... All the carbs have the same float (not mashed). Ordered the replacement from the local Yami dealer. It is in and adjusted.

[Geezer]

I think my float has too perfect an inward dome to be pulled by the vacumm created by just the mityvac. Any float with anything less than the absolute bowl in it like this float should pop back into shape. The inboard sides of the float popped back with about half of the vacuum applied.

This float was smashed by a ham-fisted idiot. It could have still be saved with some outside air pressure but it would take more work than just putting it in a vacuum chamber...

Geezer

[latexeses]

That was the float from the #1 carb. When I dropped the bowl off the thing all my wife heard was WTF!?!?!? It was at that point I thought of the po's little girl. As he said when I picked up the bike, "she's my little helper"... I think the only reason the insides weren't mashed is the shoulder in there. The little dome in there was mashed but not like the outside.

I may be putting blame where it shouldn't be.. He had one monster air compressor in the garage....

It's possible it got finished off when he saw what air preasure had done to it....

Don't have much to compare..Never seen one mashed before.

[Geezer]

If you want to send it to me, I'll see if I can make it better. If not, I can't make it much worse.

Geezer