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Carb Float Repair

R

RCP

Well-known Member
Location
Grove City Pa
I have a carb float that has gasoline inside, I can hear it when I shake the float. Is there an epoxy or Loctite that could be used to seal the float if I drill a hole to drain it? Also how do I find the the leak point that allowed gas into the float?

Thanks
Rich
 
Being as a new float can probably be found for under $5. Nah.... Dry it off, rotate it around until the leak shows up. Use plastic or metal epoxy that is gas resistant. What's your float made of? Now when you re-install it, it will sit lower and change your float setting because it's heavier.
 
Submerge it in hot water, the leak will start bubbling.

Once the leak is found, remove it from the water, let it cool, turn the leak to the lowest point, put it back in the hot water until all the gas is pushed out. It may take several times in and out of the water.

Then clean the area with fine sand paper, solder the leak with a heavy duty soldering iron, plumbing type solder and flux. Be careful not to get it so hot to release solder from the surrounding seams.

Then leak check it in the hot water.

If it's a common carb, a new float can be bought.
 
Drill the hole and drain it, then shoot some carb cleaner in the hole and drain it again and leave it sit for a day. I have drilled two small holes opposite each other so I can blow air into one hole to ventilate the float.

The carb cleaner should seep out wherever the crack is but the float has to be dry first. A drop of solder will fix the hole or holes but it is touchy. Completely clean the area around the hole and crack, smear a little flux on it and drop a drip of solder on the hole and crack with a really hot soldering gun. If the solder is real hot you might be able to touch the float real quick with the soldering gun and the solder will spread and stick. You want to keep the float cool or hot air in the float will cool and shrink and collapse the float. This trick will get you going and buy you some time to find a new float.
 
repairing a float is a lost art , vary few of us old guys can do this . I am one of them . The big this is ya don't use epoxy and the weight of the float must be maintained . to drain ya look for th tiny air hole that is already there with a small amount of solder and you open that hole and drain thru that . Then ya wash it out REAL GOOD and let it dry . Then with and old style soldering iron and flux ya resweat it and allow to cool then ya put a tiny drop of solder on the air hole and seal that last. If not done correctly when it cools it will suck the side in and now ya have JUNK. The problem you will run into is getting the acid core solder and the flux as plain old acid core will not do it all on it's own. and like said before the weight must stay the same so you have to weigh vbefore after it is drained and dry and weigh when done , so ya need a FLOAT SCALE
 
I've repaired floats a couple of times over the years.
Didn't seem like "rocket science" at the time.
I'm not sure how critical the weight of the float is.
I don't think a tiny drop of solder is gonna make much of a difference.
 
Lots of advice and it can be done but remember you are working on something like a piece of jewelry. Very delicate. The best way to clean a float is go buy a can of Barkeepers friend. Works very well. The soilder will stick much easier. Biggest thing is surgical clean surfaces. When you hit your frustration level.......take a really big hammer and beat the crap out of it.
cvphoto40595.jpg
 
Take a soldering gun and put the tip against the floats bottom side, however you want to hold it. pull the trigger and let the hot tip touch the float. Hold it there and the gas will start coming out the way it got in. You will hear it boiling and sputtering inside the float. When it stops coming out, with the leak spot on the bottom, let it cool. polish the spot and put a touch of flux on the spot. Heat the spot to get the flux to work, then gently solder it shut. Do not get the float hot again cause it will pull the solder inside. Simple and easy.
 
I put the float on an old electric coffee mug heater, (remember those) the heat will evaporate the gas or water, the hole will appear wet. The hole is usually very small about the size of a straight pin. I use JB Weld, just a drop let it cure and sand it smooth if needed with VERY fine sand paper. This has worked for me on several floats. I always drain the carb when I shut the engine down.
 
This is an MS crab with a brass float, it seems to be in decent condition, other than I can here gas in the float. The carburetor was flooding and pouring gas out of the carb.

I have a new float on order, supposed to be delivered next week.

I am going to attempt to fix the old float, I have nothing to lose.

Thanks
Rich
 
VET ..... sounds like you have your PhD in float repair ..... No offence but I would say that you are exaggerating a wee bit. I've done it several times and never even attended float school for a single class let alone graduate. This part below confuses me, something is missing or left unexplained I think ....

"to drain ya look for th tiny air hole that is already there with a small amount of solder and you open that hole and drain thru that . Then ya wash it out REAL GOOD ........."
 
I agree about the weight of the float not being super critical, unless you hang some huge goober
of solder on there like some of the self inflicted attempts at radiator repair I have seen over the
years. The tractor bouncing over a plowed field would affect the fuel level in a carb way more than
a little bit of additional solder on the float. Point being the tractor will continue to run fine even
though the fuel level in the carb has changed slightly. I can however understand if you are being
trained to repair a float by a mfg. to their spec how the weight of the repaired float would need to
be within their specification. And by the way a float scale is it real fancy. The shop I worked at in the 80?s had one. We use it to determine if one of those floats that looks like dense black foam had lost its seal and became soaked with gas.
Float scale example
 
" I have nothing to lose". Wrong. There are many perils involved - safety first. If you carefully drain the float and attempt to solder it (the best repair), the vapours inside could be a big problem. Best to just replace, submerge the old one in water for a few weeks, then try repair. HTH
 
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