Thanks to MTFCA regular reader Frank Brandi, I have been supplied with a good float for this nightmare Kingston L-4 carb that I am trying to make work on this amateur restoration. I followed the information and photos in the MTFCA carburetor booklet while going through this carb. It has fewer internal parts than a baseball, yet for some reason I can't get it to work. The plugs are firing, so I know we've got power from the timer to the plugs. I removed the spark plugs to check compression, which is good. While the plugs were out and the carb off, we put a little gasoline into each cylinder, replaced the plugs, hooked up their wires. While the owner activated the starter with the ignition key on, I held my hand over the open intake manifold. Good sucking power. My cupped hand over the back of the open manifold acted as a choke. The engine fired up and ran for a second. So, I know the problem can be traced to the carb. But what?
I had disassembled the carb to blow out any holes and clean it up a little. I know I put the flapper valve back in properly. The bowl had gasoline in it and it didn't leak or overflow, as it had done previously with a defective float. I am at a loss. What did I do wrong while going through this Kingston L-4? I followed the excellent diagram in Lang's catalog, so I know nothing was left out or is missing. Can anyone here with Kingston carb experience possibly tell me some tricks to make this carb work? It MUST be something simple I have overlooked. I don't have a known good carb of any kind to test on the engine to positively isolate this Kingston as the culprit. It's this Kingston L-4 or nothing.
Marshall
