Author Topic: Float height adjustment  (Read 1429 times)

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Offline cuz

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Float height adjustment
« on: February 03, 2016, 03:49:12 PM »
Does one measure from the high point on the float or somewhere in the middle of the float?   Mine are certainly not parallel with the carb body on my cb750k7.

Offline rotortiller

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2016, 04:05:05 PM »
12.5mm

Offline cuz

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2016, 04:23:57 PM »
Right, 12.5mm is the spec.  I think I am measuring it in the wrong position.  Do you measure the float just as it touches the float valve?  Tipping the carb body on it's side?

Offline Gene

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2016, 04:26:04 PM »
http://manuals.sohc4.net/cb750k/service_manual/SM750K_2.pdf

Page 20.

Just as it touches - do not compress the needle, yes - on the side.
*1973 CB750K3 (Bow)

Offline cuz

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2016, 04:30:16 PM »
Got it...Thanks!!

Offline Phinn

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #5 on: February 03, 2016, 06:46:27 PM »
Parallel to the carb body. It doesn't matter where along the float you measure it. Parallel means it's 14.5 mm at all points along the float's straight edge.

In my 78, it also happens to be the same height as the tower for the idle screw.
1978 CB750K -- "Mouse," a former basket case, resurrected

Offline rotortiller

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #6 on: February 04, 2016, 01:05:33 AM »
FYI -77 and 78 have different float specs and jeting. I used the 77  supplement. My 1977K works fine at the recommended float level settings.

Offline Phinn

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #7 on: February 04, 2016, 06:58:01 AM »
Didn't know that. I thought they both had PD carbs with the same flat-bottomed floats and setting. There's some contradictory info out there about those later-year float settings, and maybe the discrepancy between 77s and 78s is the reason.

In any event, I've seen info out there that says to measure the float height from the side, and some that measures from the tip. If your floats are not designed to be set parallel to the carb body (but at some up or downward slope), then I don't see how it could be accurately measured from some random spot along the side. Only the tip would be a fixed measuring point. A tolerance of 0.5mm is pretty slim to just guess.

The older round floats were measured from the side, so it would be measured from its highest point. There was even an indentation in the side of the carb lip to measure from. The PD carbs have no such indentation, and the floats aren't round. So I suspect the "measure from the side" method was a holdover from the round-float models.
1978 CB750K -- "Mouse," a former basket case, resurrected

Offline Redline it

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Re: Float height adjustment
« Reply #8 on: February 06, 2016, 10:31:23 AM »
what can be confusing is from worn jets bending the tab changes the angle of the float sometimes to a pretty large degree. What used to "level" or parallel to the bowl gasket is now an angle pointing up, as is the front of the floats are doing a wheelie. The further the tang is bent the higher the floats will be for when the float pressure stops the flow from entering. So finding the correct measurement at any position or place along the float might hinge on luck. I tried unsuccessfully for a month, 20 times, bench testing the fuel levels with all the floats, jets and pins in their original place, using the measuring methods of "float height" 21mm. The results were either fuel pouring out the over flow, or no fuel at all getting into the bowls of random bowls. I  think I blacked out.  I then dumped all disassembled parts into a pile,  then randomly picked a part to assemble the 40 year old rack of 4 Keihins rather hastily, and re adjusted each float to be even with each other somewhere around level or just before level when the tang just touched the spring loaded pin. And in the 21 clear fuel line test and after 2 or 3 attempts of carb installations, the 21st haphazardly, careless approach worked, both on the bench and after installation on the bike. I kind of knew they would, because in the middle of the 21 attempts, right in front of the carb rack, I would only "appear" to make an adjustment like a placebo effect, but didn't actually make an adjustment, and the subject bowl would react to the adjustment as if one was actually made, going the entire opposite way.

Syncing the carbs the same thing happened. Following the spec measuring directions, didn't work. I guessed at it looking at daylight coming through being the same, they worked. One of the carbs came off of another rack that were separated in use by 30,000 miles.