Forum

[Presto]

Seems to me from the comments Walter has made that the carb floods AFTER the tickler has been used. That suggests to me that the float is sticking on its spindle.

[Dennis C]

Well Presto, you may be right of course, perhaps Walter will come back and tell us when he gets it sorted, it all depends how you interpret the original post.

Does Walter actually mean it floods whilst he is tickling?, I don't know, in his later post he says the float lifts fully up and hits the tickler before the float valve closes, this indicates that the inlet is too high or the needle is too short, life can be mysterious.

[walter]

In response to Dennis and Presto,s comments I will update .I have slightly modified the float in the chamber by soldering a small brass shim on top of the brass float to shut the float needle sooner before the float can touch the tickler, it has stopped the fuel from pouring out of the top of the tickler but my concern is that there won,t be enough petrol in the carb.I shall be ordering a complete new gasket set for the carb and refurbish it as much as I can and see the outcome.

Thanks to those who have taken an interest so far .I will keep you posted as to the outcome of this mysterious drama. regards Walter.

[Rattlebattle]

This reminds me of a time many years ago when having tickled the carbs on my Jubilee Bonneville when about to ride home from Wales petrol continued to pour out of one of them. Having removed the float bowl from the concentric carb the reason for the flooding was established as a part of a bluebottle having got lodged between the float needle and its seat. There was an entire Airfix kit like set of parts to assemble a bluebottle floating around in the float bowl. It had obviously been dissolved into its component parts by the petrol. How on Earth the blue bottle managed to get into the carb (which had an air filter fitted) remains a mystery.....

[Presto]

Ah! A 'brass' float! Then all my calculations, measurements and predictions are invalid! This is a very old set up and things have changed greatly since such floats were fitted. I await the final outcome of this mysterious, perplexing and counter-intuitive problem! (What was the approx date when brass floats were last fitted to Monoblocs?)

[Dennis C]

Walter, to check the petrol level remove the cap nut from the pilot jet and put a short length of clear tube on the jet there is a pip on the float chamber cover and this is the correct level, turn on the petrol and the tube should fill to this mark.

[walter]

Dennis C. Good tip that pipe on the pilot jet .Checked it earlier today , and the level was spot on .I also lifted the tickler housing up with a spacer ,so with the modified float the two mods together seems to have cured it because the bike started second kick and ran smoothly and
did not flood. A few more jobs to do and it should be back out of retirement.

[Dennis C]

Just curious, does the float valve housing have a fibre washer fitted?.

[walter]

Dennis C .Sorry to sound thick but I am not sure what you mean by float valve housing, I have put a washer under the tickler body to raise it up by a couple of millimetres ,and the needle seat housing has a fibre washer under it, plus a fuel filter on the needle seating as is shown in any exploded view of the carburettor.

[Dennis C]

Hi Walter, it's the fitting where the petrol feed banjo fixes to the float chamber with the float needle up inside it, putting a fibre washer under it raises the fitting and then the needle can't go high enough to seal the valve.