• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

Replace Brass floats with Plastic ones?

  • Thread starter Thread starter system9
  • Start date Start date
S

system9

Guest
Where I live the temperature changes cause the brass floats to compress, changing my float height of course.
Question, can I use plastic floats from newer carbs in a carb body that originally came with brass floats?
 
I live where it can be +100 degrees F in the summer and I still ride now at 25 degrees F and I don't seem to have any problems.
 
Never heard of a brass float changing shape due to temperature.
Are you sure it is not a pinhole or split seam?
If you put your location in your signature a helpful GSer might be nearby.
 
The brass floats went from convex to concave in shape, both the exact same amount. One day my bike was leaking gas, and I know it used to be fine. I had to re-set the float levels to compensate for the warped floats (they still float though)
I read this on another thread concerning the same issue

"Thanks jabcb for the link. That bulletin explains the damaged float issue completely.
I have heard about bikes being parked outside in freezing weather for a long time and the gas in the bowls freezing and collapsing the floats"

So the question isn't whether or not brass floats can compress, cause they do, and I have some that have. I'm wondering if I can use the plastic style ones from the next series of carbs, or is the shape of the plastic float not going to work on the carb bodies that came with brass floats?

[FONT=verdana, arial, sans-serif]I live in Ann Arbor MI, I'll add it to my signature. Thanks.[/FONT]
 
Hi system9, I live in Ypsi and work in AA.

So the other replies are right, brass floats don't normally change shape. Like you suggest, it could theoretically happen if ice forms in the float bowls. But gas doesn't freeze easily (I believe it will turn into a gel at truly arctic temperatures, not the mild stuff we get here) so the only way for that kind of damage to occur is if your carbs somehow got filled with water. Did you store it outside? The only other scenario I can think of is maybe you bought some gas with a high ethanol content, it attracted a lot of water, leaked through the petcock and into the carbs where the gas evaporated faster than the water. But that's a guess and probably something of a long shot.

Regardless of how, if water froze inside your carbs, it could have very well damaged the jets and internal passages too and you might not be able to tell just by looking. If it turns out the rest of the carbs is miraculously okay, then winterizing the fuel system this year would not be a bad idea. I treat my gas with Sta-Bil, fill the tank up, drain the carbs, disconnect the fuel line, and push the bike into the corner for the year.

To answer your question: judging from the parts fiche, your carbs look similar to those used on 4-cylinder GSes but the float bowl design is different (roundish), so I doubt the floats would interchange. The part number for the float is 13252-31210 and was used on a bunch of 400s and 450s, so it shouldn't be hard to find good used ones. (Or $25 each for new, which honestly isn't that bad.) If you want to see whether any aftermarket manufacturers made plastic floats, you can put that part number into Google and see what pops up.
 
Thanks for the info. The bike is stored in the garage, at the last possible moment before hard winter hits ;-)
I usually put some seafoam in the tank. I'm going to say now, because of popular opinion, that the floats did not compress because of cold or pressure. I'm not exactly sure why they are convex. These carbs have alot of oddities to them. Even with years that are supposed to to be the same, I've seen needle jets that won't even fit into the bowls. At this point the floats still do float, so I will continue to use them, with no more worries that they are expanding or contracting. Thanks for the input.
 
Cool cadre you've got going there, I think I even see some spares in the garage. I commute into work on my GS almost every day in reasonable weather. Have you been by bike night in Depot Town? I was able to make it a few times this year and have up with a few fellow GSR forum members there. If you haven't been, it's usually quite a spectacle. Lots of nice and sometimes unique bikes but by about 8 p.m., mostly taken over by the Harley crowd.

If you ever need a hand with bike maintenance, let me know. I love working on bikes but mine is running just fine. :P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top