Feeling like a Newbie

2door said:
One in a million!!!!
I've been around here for a while, read almost every post and thought I'd seen about everything but this I've never seen.

The 'C' clip on the needle broke. That allowed the needle to drop into and block off the main jet. I've seen spring steel snap rings break before in other applications but I've never heard of one of our carb clips breaking. I've installed and moved quite a few over the years and never had one break and certainly not after it was installed and the engine has run for as long as this one has.

My main jets are small because I have to run lean here at this altitude. The needle is bigger after the taper than the orifice in the jet so when the needle dropped it completely plugged the jet. In fact it was stuck in the jet and I had to use a pair of small hemostats to pull it out.

This makes me wonder how many times it might have happened to guys who didn't quite understand how things in the carb work and just replaced the carburetor and went on their way. So I'm asking if anyone has ever seen a 'C' clip (some call them 'E' clips) break? I know they're easy to loose and I had one needle with the grooves not cut deep enough for a good fit, but just breaking in half is new to me.

Tom
Click to expand...

I've seen it ONE other time on a certain Can-am 175 way back when. The guy I bought it from had been messing with the carb a LOT and apparently bent the clip one time too many.When it broke, the needle hung up in the slide and would partially plug the jet. Took me several tries to find it because the needle came out with the slide like normal and it was a broken half of the clip that finally pinpointed the problem. I probably would never have found it otherwise. Slide looked normal.
 
I just have to wonder how many bike projects might have been abandoned or the engine thrown in the trash because the guy couldn't get it to run and any help he got from this forum or other places didn't suggest he look for this problem.

I seroiusly believe it is a real fluke and not something that you'd see often but I still have wonder if it's more common that we think.

Think of it this way; we tell a new builder to check for all the things I checked originally and he does but he still can't get the engine to run. How many of them just give up and/or replace the carburetor never realizing what the problem was?

It's something that I'll remember when I see a new builder, or even an experienced one have a engine that won't run.

Thanks for all the replys, guys. I hope we all learned something.

Tom
 
Tom, Tom.. (Groove shakes head). The structural integrity of the E-clip must be verified at regular intervals. That is a CLASSIC newbie maintenance oversight...

LOL -Just kidding of course. I don't think I'd have made it that far down the troubleshooting list before unceremoniously throwing the china doll into the river. Nice work!!
 
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