Murphy hit me this weekend – crap.

I rebuilt the carbs on the -6 this weekend. On Saturday night, after finishing the first one, I sat back could not believe how much I enjoyed doing it. Now, granted, I did not have to mess with any throttle shaft issues – just a good cleaning, new gaskets, seals, needle valves, jets, acc pump and a float adjustment.

On Sunday, I jumped back in and started on carb number 2. Everything was going great until I went to remove the needle valve access bolt on the top of the casting. The SOB would not budge. After a few hours of PB blaster and then some heat, it finally broke free. Unfortunately it took a very small piece of the casting with it (the piece was probably a 32nd deep and no more than 1/16th long right on the top flat sealing surface). Being that this is located right next to the gas inlet for the carb, I spent a good two hours with a fine file and various grits of emory paper smoothing out the area. But, I am still concerned about having a leak.

Any thoughts? (capn, you out there?)

I have extra aluminum washers that go under the access bolt. I thought about adding an additional one for a bit of extra “squish” at the seal.

… or do I need a new carb top? (dreading this…)

Looking into the fuel inlets, I do not see any difference in the distance in the depth that the access bolt goes into the casting. Needle valves went in easily – nothing affected there at all. I am just concerned about a potential leak.

It was a real let down after everything going so well.

Thanks for any thoughts/ideas

-Scott S

Ouch Scotty, that sucks.
Take some pics, I think they'll help in determining how best to proceed.
Mike

There is really not much to show. Per the pic below, everything went together fine. The red circle is the port that was filed. Other than being shiney compared to the other one - it looks fine. My main concern is tolerances - it looks and feels completely flat - but that is not the same as actually being completely flat.






Has anyone heard or used these folks? http://performanceoriented.com/technical.htm#Resurfacing

Thay had this picture under resurfacing that shows exactly where I had to file/fix the surface.

I just spoke to Paul Abbot at Performance Oriented based on a reference from the bird board:

http://performanceoriented.com/index.htm

Really nice guy. He will remachine the tops for 20.00 and supply me with an updated sealing washer that does not bind like the original aluminum crush washers. Shipping the carb top off tomorrow.

He said this is not rare and an easy fix. thank God. (still keeping my fingers crossed until they come back however....)

Paul is a great guy and very knowledgeable. I recently had him go through my Webers and he does great work.

Highly recommended.