Carb Floats - twisted?

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mcgovern61

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Dec 3, 2009
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Location
Kingsport, Tennessee
My Bike Models
Former '82 GL1100 "The Slug"
I am following a thread that has come across what I think is a common issue with the 1100 carbs........you check the adjustment of the floats to set them at 15.5 mm and one float is correct and the other is out by as much as 2-3 mm. It seems to infer that somehow the floats got twisted. I had my carbs rebuilt an few years back and found my floats in exactly that condition too..twisted. Here is the thread I am following for others to catch up on:

viewtopic.php?p=137605#p137605

Here is my carb story:

viewtopic.php?p=4883#p4883

My question is, how do they get twisted??

Is this a more common problem then we have taken notice of before?
 
floats are made of thin metal that carries the floats ... most grab floats them self one at a time and bend them ... the metal bends in the narrowest point ... and this never works even ... as i remember it was pistol pete who did your carbs so even experts can screw this up ... to do this right you have to be very methodical at how you go about it ... zman post in the recent thread is rather spot on in doing it right in my opinion
 
I haven't heard of that before, seems all the past (other bike)carbs I have checked I never noticed, there it a stop tab on one side that adds extra support to the float assembly...I wonder if that leaves the other un supported side prone to bend?..But still it should only happen when the float is dry because that is when the tab hits the float tower and leaves the other one hanging on its own.
 
as i remember it was pistol pete who did your carbs so even experts can screw this up ... Why say that?? No evidence that Pete did it. He has a pretty good reputation.
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=137644#p137644:2b97itau said:
ekvh » Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:11 pm[/url]":2b97itau]
as i remember it was pistol pete who did your carbs so even experts can screw this up ... Why say that?? No evidence that Pete did it. He has a pretty good reputation.
I'll tell ya, when I got them back I could tell they were worked on, but I thought they were going to be put through an ultrasonic cleaner. They came back looking just a bit cleaner than when they left. The parts were replaced and the idle screws had yellow paint markings that were not there before they left my house, but the floats were completely out of adjustment and the float needles leaked and would not seat until after I cleaned them twice.

I sent emails back to the email address that was used for the shipping correspondence, but no reply. I'm not absolutely sure Pete was the one that did the job???? They worked better than when they came off the bike and the bike idled down as far as 650 before stalling and were nice and steady at 1050 were I keep them. They were fairly well synced so somebody did work on them. But the twisted floats seemed way out of line. I could only assume that they got dropped during shipping more than once??
 
this carb job was done at pistol petes sheesh eric ....what is it ...people who pay money and get lacking job ..somehow become the criminal for saying so sheesh i dont think so not here ...to me gerrys reputation is the one i know of for sure ...

eric we dont cater to anyone on this forum ...just to the truth ...as all should .... pistol pete no different tha any other person or business ...its funny to to me that it ok to slam sabre cycle by people ...but then the same people its not okay about others ....thats just idiotic and deserves no attention what so ever

this is a member first forum and gerrys is represented here first ...i dont think pistol pete is a member here at all .... and his customer service was 0 in this case
 
Easy Joe!! :shock: No need for that!!

My thread is not about his work. :whip:

I started the thread because it is the third time I have come across others that found their carb floats twisted and not be even. I am looking to see if this is a common issue and if so, how does it happen. Just as important, is it something that needs a closer look?
 
That is a good explanation and stating everything we have been in this thread and the other one.
I believe some try to adjust float height by bending them on the mounts. This has never been the correct way to adjust floats on any carb I've ever worked on, always the tang.

Shipping companies don't care what's in the package. Imagine that box the rack is in being thrown around and it's easy to see how floats could get twisted and thrown out of adjustment. Personally if I sent a rack out for rebuilding, or any carb for that matter, first thing I'd do is check and adjust the floats.
 
Shipping companies don't care what's in the package. Imagine that box the rack is in being thrown around and it's easy to see how floats could get twisted and thrown out of adjustment. Personally if I sent a rack out for rebuilding, or any carb for that matter, first thing I'd do is check and adjust the floats.
Think that is the best explanation, You take an empty rack, shipped upright, The unsupported side of the float would take a pounding with things like rough roads,turbulence and over long distances especially..Probably best to check float levels after shipment.
 
[url=https://forum.classicgoldwings.com/viewtopic.php?p=137644#p137644:3mib93xm said:
ekvh » Wed Dec 17, 2014 9:11 pm[/url]":3mib93xm]
as i remember it was pistol pete who did your carbs so even experts can screw this up ... Why say that?? No evidence that Pete did it. He has a pretty good reputation.

Hi Guys,
Pistol Pete here,
I apologize for not joining earlier but I am now a member and you all can fire away any issues that come to light.

I just completed a search of our records back to 2008, and found McGovern's rebuild date was 3/8/2009.
However even though this time frame is nearly 5 years ago, we still would like to hear about those problems. I could not find any email from McGovern either in our current shop records that began in early 2011.
I would ask that mcgovrn61 please contact me on this forum or by email which I have posted in my identity.

First lets look at a few things:

1) We have no control over the external final finish of the carburetor bodies as some times they are stained to the point that the finish is not recoverable. Having said that customers will not find any fuel related debris. We employ several methods of cleaning and these are all Randakks approved. They have been since signing on with Randall as a carb rebuilder. We added ultrasonic cleaning two and a half years ago.

2) The metal used on a GL1100 float has been made from a 5000 series aluminum from the very first year. The way that the floats are constructed, damage can be done by "twisting" them so we do not do this and never have. However, some times the individual floats will need to be slightly torqued horizontally to get the surfaces to be in the same plane. This we do nearly every time.
We also check the volume of each float chamber after the set is ran on our test engine. If it is incorrect the float bowl is removed and the float is reset.
No set of rebuild carburetors will leave this shop if it has a known leakage from anywhere.

3) In every case, we have always sent a warranty sheet explaining how to start up "our" rebuilt set. I say ours because the set isn't finished until the customer is satisfied.
The sheet explains a "Do" list and a "Don't" list. The don't list includes in bold letters, "Do not introduce dirty fuel into this freshly rebuild set of carburetors."

All of this said; we will help get this set running correctly even if it means it should come back to us and that no one else has been inside the set other than the owner.

Thank you.
Pistol Pete
 
Pete, thanks for joining and explaining the process! :clapping:

For the record, I did follow the instructions and only new fuel (from a clean tank) was introduced. I also only have a handful of the original emails that I sent back then asking for help with the leaks or clarifications. I can resend the emails, but I think that is moot at this point since you have replied in this thread.

The two main issues I ended up with were that the floats were found not adjusted at 15.5 mm (which I did not discover until after I started chasing problems with leaking which was almost 1 year after the rebuild), and gas would leak past the float needles on #1 and #2 which would not seal. Unfortunately, I discovered the issues after the bike was sitting overnight and a gas/oil mixture ended up on the floor of my garage. The gas was seeping past and emptying the bowls even with the petcock off.

As noted earlier in this thread, I started this thread because of the discovery of the twisted floats and that others were finding a similar condition. I wanted to know if this was more common than I realized?

I have learned a lot about 1100's since 2009 and have really only been syncing these carbs since I got the leaking issue corrected in 2010. After sitting last winter off the bike (dry) while doing work on the engine, I did get stuck floats which I did get working again.

I am still riding and would not be taking anything apart until snow hits this winter. I could send them to you then if you wanted to take a look?
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=138117#p138117:1ur3jooz said:
mcgovern61 » Fri Dec 26, 2014 3:16 pm[/url]":1ur3jooz]
Pete, thanks for joining and explaining the process! :clapping:

For the record, I did follow the instructions and only new fuel (from a clean tank) was introduced. I also only have a handful of the original emails that I sent back then asking for help with the leaks or clarifications. I can resend the emails, but I think that is moot at this point since you have replied in this thread.

The two main issues I ended up with were that the floats were found not adjusted at 15.5 mm (which I did not discover until after I started chasing problems with leaking which was almost 1 year after the rebuild), and gas would leak past the float needles on #1 and #2 which would not seal. Unfortunately, I discovered the issues after the bike was sitting overnight and a gas/oil mixture ended up on the floor of my garage. The gas was seeping past and emptying the bowls even with the petcock off.

As noted earlier in this thread, I started this thread because of the discovery of the twisted floats and that others were finding a similar condition. I wanted to know if this was more common than I realized?

I have learned a lot about 1100's since 2009 and have really only been syncing these carbs since I got the leaking issue corrected in 2010. After sitting last winter off the bike (dry) while doing work on the engine, I did get stuck floats which I did get working again.

I am still riding and would not be taking anything apart until snow hits this winter. I could send them to you then if you wanted to take a look?

May I ask how you measured the float height??
The carb must be in a vertical position with the float up, hinge down.
Is this how you measured them?
Pistol
 
May I ask how you measured the float height??
The carb must be in a vertical position with the float up, hinge down.
Is this how you measured them?
Pistol

Yes, that is how I measured them as shown in many tutorials.

I do not remember which float it was, but it measured 17(+) mm and #1 and #3 float sets were twisted. As stated in this and other threads, I concluded that the carbs must have been dropped during shipping to get the floats twisted like that?
 
[url=https://classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=138121#p138121:1il43pye said:
pistolpete » Fri Dec 26, 2014 3:38 pm[/url]":1il43pye]
Sure,
Send them when you can and we will be happy to take a look.
Do you have our address??
Pistol
This is the address I have in my emails:

Pistol Pete’s Services
102 Foxwood Circle
Oliver Springs, TN 37840
 
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