VM carb float bowls

[Suzuki mad]

I've got 4 VM28 float bowls here and I need a little enlightenment.

Inside the bowl is a stamped number either a 3 or 1. Does any one know what these figure respresent?

On the very bottom of the outside of the bowl is number 70 or no 50. What are these numbers?

I also have one very shiney float bowl and three very dark grey looking ones. On the GS1000S I have two shiney ones (the outers) and two duller ones.

Could these marks indicate which carb they go to? Could this be fuel volume in the carbs or an ID for the original assembly?

Suzuki mad

[hampshirehog]

Suzuki put these type of numbers all over the place - cylinder head, front forks, master cylinder, etc when there are no differences between parts. I got a bit anal about this and looked whenever I could to see if the numbers were model / year / part no. related and couldn't find any reasoning. My best guess (and I've no evidence but what else could it be for), is that those numbers stamped in to the alloy parts were related to manufacturing batch numbers.

[Nessism]

Is the drain hole configured the same way on all the parts? Note below how the drain faces different directions on the 550 VM carbs.

[Suzuki mad]

No. The drain plugs do not face all the same direction. Its the same as your picture above.

Origianlly I was expecting to find 1,2,3 and 4 which would have made it easy. Then I thought that I had a miss matched set. Now it looks like the No3's fitt the outside two carbs and the No1's the inner two.

My concern was the figures on the bottoms of the float bowls and if it was to do with fuel volume in the chamber. This would then upset the float height was my figuring so I was concerned about swapping the parts.

Suzuki mad

[robertbarr]

On cast or molded items like these, it's typical to find cavity numbers on the part. They're for QC and other uses. (I'm not saying that's what every ID on the part is for, but that's at least one of them. Often there's a code for manufacture date/time too. Undecipherable and meaningless except by / to the manufacturer).

When new, these bikes used a shinier float bowl on the outer carbs, for (obviously) cosmetic reasons. They don't stay shiny after they've been dipped -- that kills the magic plastic coating.