How to re-surface the carb needle valve at carb body

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noiseguy
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How to re-surface the carb needle valve at carb body

Post by noiseguy »

How to re-surface the carb needle valve at carb body. Thanks to Wheelman-111 and Kenny for this tip.

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Honda-san sternly admonishes to "replace the float needle and seat 'as a set'...". Huh? The "seat" is the gritty aluminum carb casting!

I used a sage Forum member's advice and tested the seal by lifting the float while blowing into the fuel fitting. It leaked unless I pushed pretty hard on the float - harder than I think the buoyancy of the float would apply.

K McC suggested polishing the seat area with a Q-Tip and some polishing compound. Not having said compound handy, I looked around for a mildly abrasive diamatomatous paste and came up with...

Colgate! I needed to strip a little cotton off the Q-Tip so it would reach the bottom of the float needle seat. I lapped for a minute or 2 and voila! A shiny new seat for the cone-shaped point! All this AND cavity protection!

A quick spray-down with carb cleaner and a float tab adjustment later: airtight seal!
Sorry no pics of the process. BlackBerry phone photos are unable to capture the grandeur of this small victory.

The bet will be hedged by a second, hopefully functional, new vacuum petcock when it arrives. Honda-san; I got yer needle seat seat right here!
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