Topic: Float tang dimple fix

[tlbranth]

You can file or buff the dimples but eventually you'll have little or no tang left. Here's what I did. I may have to do this in several posts on account of I'm not too swift at getting pics uploaded.
The first pic shows a strip of 0.015" thick brass. I got a small sheet at a hobby store, cut it with scissors and flattened it lightly with a ball-pein hammer (it curls when you cut it). I brushed it clean with a steel wire brush and brushed on some plumbing flux. Using a small iron, I tinned one side of the brass with electronic solder. Then I cleaned, fluxed and tinned the float tang. I cut an appropriately sized piece from my tinned strip, put it on the tang and heated it with a soldering gun 'til I saw the solder melt between the two pieces and the new strip sank down snug against the tang.
Important to keep the non-soldered side of the new strip clean of solder so the gun tip needs to be clean. My pic shows solder on top and I had to redo this one because of it.

[tlbranth]

Here's a pic showing the 2 parts being joined

[tlbranth]

Here are the irons I used. The small blue one was used for tinning. The black gun has a lot more suds and was kept clean of solder and used to join the 2 pieces

[tlbranth]

The cool thing about this fix is that when your new fitting gets dimpled, you can put on a new one easily - the tang is already tinned.

[ekpent]

Interesting procedure, thanks for sharing. Let us know how it works out for you on the road.

[jonda500]

Awesome, thanks!   That black gun is interesting - I haven't seen one like that before..
John

[tlbranth]

Awesome, thanks!   That black gun is interesting - I haven't seen one like that before..
John

Standard Weller soldering gun. They carry them at HD

[HondaMan]

Nice work, TL! That's a good fix. I did it to a "full resto" of an early K1 the owner wanted to keep all-original as possible (he was one of those vintage car collector guys), and one of the carbs' tangs had been corroded away from water sitting in the carb bowl a long time. I managed to get the brass floats' holes all plugged, and made a new tang altogether, soldering it to the round tube the pin fits in. It has held up fine for years, so I know your fix will, too!

[tlbranth]

Interesting procedure, thanks for sharing. Let us know how it works out for you on the road.

3100 miles to Dolores and back and the tang fix held up fine. I did all four carbs.