D.A. newb with yet ANOTHER leaky float bowl Q

[LOUD MOUSE]

Rob called and we discussed the settings for the carbs. ..........lm

I've offered my number to him and ask for his if he doesn't want to call me.
I'm out of this discussion.
Such a simple adjustment and far to much attention on stupid things.
........................LM

LM' you are right. PB you have the needle valve depressed in both pics giving a HIGH fuel level. Rob, no need to reinvent the wheel here, set the float level to spec (gasket surface--no notch--no lip) good to go.
Randy

Randy

Measuring the fuel level is not reinventing the wheel. As we can see here, the 'secondary' method of measuring some arbitrary dimension which may or may not give you the correct fuel level is confusing and open to interpretation.....

The engine cares about the level of the fuel in the float bowl not how clever you are at guessing the position of a bit of brass......

G

[rrietman]

G; you are right, real time fuel level is almost impossible to confirm. Honda engineers (in the day) have given us a compromised measurement which, in their opinion, will allow the carb to operate properly. all the period Honda manuals describe it this way. It is a compromise. good luck.
Randy

[pojobey]

Just to be clear, the floats themselves are not Keyster replacements. I guess I don't understand what it means for the float needle valve to be depressed at measurement since it was barely touching. As I mentioned, I had to lay them that way for the pictures but the Keyster needle valve/spring did not seem depressed during the float setting process at any time. But I acknowledge my inexperience.

Totally agree with the notion of the fuel running along the gasket seam due to surface tension thus causing an immediate leak when the petcock was turned on. I would bet that the Honda gaskets and tightening of the clips were the major fix factors.

A couple other notes. The floats moved freely (not hitting the gasket sides) as far as I could tell by rocking the carbs off the bike (I also bent them inwards a tad). Also, any float settings less than 1" height resulted in them hitting the top of the chamber prematurely. Finally, I have had the bike out a few times around the neighborhood and it pulls good although I haven't had it at cruising speed for any extended length of time. I will be looking for related performance issues but right now I'm ecstatic not to be needing a fire extinguisher strapped to the bike.

Thanks for all the discussion. Some of this stuff is hard to describe in writing (for me). I did call lm and Tim McD for inputs and they were very patient with me (thanks guys!).

-pb