Here is my new Linkert Harley brass float mounted in a Kingston 5 ball carburetor. Fits like a glove and works great! Got it on Ebay for $20 bucks.
Thats intersting, I never thought of a Harley float.
What was wrong with the float that was in it?
Looks great - what did you use for the needle valve?
I should have specified float needle valve
The cab had been rebuilt and already had the new seat and lever. I drilled the lever for the new Harley float. I also order #4 stainless washers from McMaster to shim the side play of the float pivot. Here was the old fiber float:
Interesting. I have dozens of those fiber floats running in various forms in 5 ball and other carbs that nobody makes floats for. They are made from a material used to make commercially available floats. They are fairly fragile but I've only seen one other one broken. They are very buoyant, though - which is the hard thing to find - and impervious to all the Ethanol and various other additives in fuel, which many other floats are not. This one doesn't look like it broke in use, more likely in shipping.
The needle and seat design is running in several hundred carburetors trouble free. As far as I know, it is the only modern replacement design that can be renewed in the field in a few minutes and needs no adjustment to the float height after replacement. I install it in all the 4 & 5 ball carbs I rebuild so there are well over 100 of them running around. I've actually never had to send out a replacement needle and seat but it is a screw out - screw in design so it can replaced easily when needed and manufactured by whoever starts doing this when I am done.
Everything else I have ever seen for a design - and I've probably not seen all of them - require the carb being returned to a shop for renewal. I have done several 5 ball carbs that had a Techumseh seat glued in so it had to be drilled out or melted out to replace it. Those do not flow enough gas to run the engine at full fuel demand levels, either.
The problem with most of the brass floats is that they are too heavy and set too low in the fuel in the chamber. Most are made in India and the brass is very brittle so vibration is really hard on them. It would be interesting to see the buoyancy of the brass float compared to the original cork and the modern material. I'll have to try one of the new Linkert floats and see if it is better than the ones I've tried before. I have a box of brass floats that won't float or don't float well enough to close the needle at a reliable height. The float has to set high enough for the plunger to depress it for starting and low enough that it is closing the needle valve securely. The float height in the 5 ball is critical due to there not being a choke in the intake circuit in the early ones; the carb has to be flooded to start.
The brass ones I've bought tend to vary in weight due to the solder job done on them and the thickness of the brass used to make them. Maybe the quality has improved, I haven't bought any for probably a couple years.
I am having some new floats made by a guy who makes them for John Deere carburetors. They should be stronger, more buoyant and available in a wider range of sizes than anything on the market. It will be sometime this spring before they are available - if then. The minimum order for each size is pretty staggering. I am having them made for the Kingston 4 ball, Kingston 5 ball in two sizes and the U & J, which is a bastard size all its own.
The Rubber Ducky floats made for Linkert carbs are the only things I have found commercially made that are not pretty fragile. The problems with them is that they are available in only two sizes and they are not very buoyant. I have had no luck with them at all.
Let us know how it works on the car, Rod.