Float Bowls

[Anonymous]

Is the purpose of the float to keep a constant flow to the carbs of watever it needs and not give it too much or too little..my one float had a crack in it and there was gas in the one side of it i drilled a small hole to drain it and soldiered it up again but i think now its even crappier cuz the weight..

[KEITH KRAUSE]

The float height has to be within a specific range. Too high a fuel level in the bowls will cause richness/possible fuel overflow, and too low a fuel level will cause fuel starvation. Any significant extra weight on the float will cause richness/possible fuel overflow.

[Anonymous]

One float in our GS450 had a leak and one solution that worked was the following. I am wondering what you all think of it. The brass float was soldered, but it began leaking after a couple of days.

I had some Kreem left over from coating my tank so I diluted it about 1:4 (Kreem:Tank Prep B) to make is significantly thinner. I then dunked, the float, except the bridge and let it hang dry overnight. I wasn't significantly heavier and was pretty easy to adjust the float level correctly. This worked fine until we got a set of plastic floats from a newer carb, set the height and now it works great.

[Anonymous]

Where did u get the plastic floats i want a set so bad ....what carbs

[Anonymous]

plastic floats.

I have a few for you. I thought I had a set of 4 but one is gone.

Mine are out of some CV carbs from a 650. They are the same as for my 850.

What kind of carbs do you have?

[Anonymous]

im not exactly sure all i know is that its a 78 gs400 with twin mikuni carbs

[Sandy]

The soldering job should work as long as you don't get to much solder (weight) on the float. I've done this numerous times over the years without any problems. Just make there are not any more pinholes in the float.

[Anonymous]

I swapped the plastic floats from carbs on an 83 GS450 for the brass ones in an 82 GS450. I checked bikebandit and your 78 GS400 carbs look remarkably similar to the carbs on a 82GS450 and since the plastic floats on an 83GS450 work in an 82, *perhaps* they would work on you 78! They cost 16.00 each.

Perhaps someone more knowlegeable can help figure out which newer floats can replace the ones in your 78 carbs?

[Anonymous]

Hey thanks for ur time....i see what you mean i look at bike bandit.com and the floats for 82 and down were made of brass. so i looked at the 83 gs450 ed you would think it would be totally different but the carbs look pretty damn close to being identical, you can see the 83's floats are differently shaped and are cheaper since there made of plastic ...i think if i were to order them i would be fine....just adjusting the float level perfectly would be necessary

[Anonymous]

i wanna add one more thing i see some carbs DONT even have floats in them like my snow blower for example, why doesnt this motor need one, and what would happen if u took the float and needle right out of the carb and had a fuel valve on and off that i could turn the supply off let it run for a few seconds then stall the motor, this way it wouldnt over flow right? .....im guessing it will run out of the over flow tubes and run rich because the motor couldnt use that amount of constant gas

[Anonymous]

i have another wuestion about this lets say i took the floats and the needles right out of my carbs, and lets say i had a way to keep a constant flow going to the carbs not starving the bowl of fuel or orverflowing it would it work how could it effect the way the engine runs

[KEITH KRAUSE]

i have another wuestion about this lets say i took the floats and the needles right out of my carbs, and lets say i had a way to keep a constant flow going to the carbs not starving the bowl of fuel or orverflowing it would it work how could it effect the way the engine runs

What way? The fuel level must be maintained within about 1/12th of an inch. No lower, no higher. A correctly adjusted float maintains this level under all conditions/fuel demands and allows the float valve to stop flow when needed. I don't see how you could simulate that. Too much trouble to me.

[Anonymous]

i was thinking using a vacuum operated valve connected to manifold vacuum to control how much fuel will flow when its idling it would keep it at the perfect level and when its revved it will keep it at a perdect level when its off it shut the flow off ...kind of like a variable petcock...no float bowls to mess around with ....

[Anonymous]

its better then sticking with the floats and fuel injection gets too complicated you have o have a computer and a bunch of sensors to make a efficient enough system to beet carbs...using all mechanical stuff and mayb one rigged up sensor to do fuel injection would just be like running a carb

[Anonymous]

bowls

snow blowers weed eaters and chain saws all use what is refered to as pumper carbs and do not have a float bowl as such, you can put pumper carbs on a motor cycle but you need a crank case vacuum signal to make them operate, so they lend them selves to two stoke engines much better than a four stroke, pumpers have a small chamber with a pumping diapham and a needle and seat that is operated by the diapham,pulsing up and down,on a folcum that opens and closes the needle and allows fuel in to the camber, witch then flows into the jet camber,then the engine this is a very simple description do to space and time limatations