carb Flooding

GoldenMotor.com

woodyvt

New Member
Sep 12, 2008
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First, let me say that at 47 years old I have been working on mechanical things all my life and have a pretty fair understanding of internal combustion engines and fluid dynamics.

I do accept that I can sometimes miss something that may seam obvious to someone else and also that I am willing to listen and learn.

Here goes...

I have been into my carb, disassembled, cleaned, adjusted float, reassembled too many times to count and I cannot stop that darned thing from flooding. I have checked that the float floats, checked that the float shut-off actually shuts of the fuel flow into the carb bowl, I have adjusted the float tangs down as far as to be ridiculous and should just about prevent the carb from getting any fuel at all, I have eyeballed this thing, contemplated every possible flaw that I can think of but it continues to overflow the bowl and flood.

Yesterday, out of pure desperation, I tweaked the tank fuel petcock to barely a drip, unable to adjust it to get it to idle, but was able to scoot around town for about five miles or so... up to about 25 miles per hour and even had no trouble with a moderate hill with a 36 tooth rear sprocket. That said I'm sure you can appreciate that I think running under those circumstances is a bit silly and this appearantly minor problem should be solvable.

Today, even though it appears to seal well I am going to replace the fuel bowl gasket and see if that will improve anything.

So, if anyone has any thoughts or advice regarding this maddening issue, I would be very interested in reading them. Maybe I'm missing something obviously silly so an objective opinion is warrented.... ?

Thanks in advance.

P.S. It's a sweet looking ride... Purple Dyno Moto Glide bobber. I'll post pics when I get this carb thing solved.
 
Last edited:

thatsdax

Member
Feb 22, 2008
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www.thatsdax.com
examine your white plastic doughnut style float. Look to see if there is any fuel inside the float. If you have a pinhole in your float, as temp rises and falls, it will force fuel into this pin hole and fill the float. Once it gets a little fuel inside, it will lose buoyancy and cause flooding. I hope this helps. Enjoy the ride..
 

Biker Mike

New Member
Mar 21, 2008
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Cropwell Alabama
Make sure the fuel line is sealed and the barb is tight at the carb. The lines will leak if no clamp or tie of some type is installed. Also the barb on the carb that the fuel line attaches to is usually loose out of the box. Make sure you tighten it. If leaking at this area it will appear to be flooding. good luck. :bike2:
 

woodyvt

New Member
Sep 12, 2008
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I believe that I have figured out most of the problem;

There are two large lower tangs and two much smaller upper tangs on the fuel float shut-off mechanism. With some closer examination i found that the two smaller upper tangs were not shaped correctly to completely shut off fuel flow into the bowl when the float was at it's highest point. They were not pushing the flow pin up far enough to shut the fuel flow off. I re-arched the upper tangs and I believe that has significantly improved things.