<VV> How to destroy a carb float the easy way

Michael McCrae mmccrae6 at cox.net
Sun Nov 28 17:29:05 EST 2021


I might be completely off center here, but wouldn’t putting your hand over the carb create a negative pressure in the system thus potentially exploding the float rather than crushing it? I know that blow through carb systems use foam filled floats to keep them from being crushed, as you are creating a positive pressure around the float…?
Mike McCrae

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From: Grant via VirtualVairs
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2021 1:57 PM
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org
Subject: <VV> How to destroy a carb float the easy way

I occasionally find crushed floats in the hundreds of carburetors I take apart each year (maybe 5%). I have not really been concerned since I had spares, until I recently disassembled a set of 3 YH carbs from a 1953 Corvette (almost the same as the Corvair YH, but with a manual choke and twice the price), and found all 3 floats crushed to the point that they could not be recovered with the dunk in boiling water trick. These have become very rare, so I went on a web search to find out what might have caused it. Turns out that the best way to crush a float is to completely seal the inlet to the carburetor when trying to start the engine or when running. I recall reading on this forum some time ago that you might be able to clear some plugging in a carb by placing a hand over the inlet while it was running (I have done it on some secondary carbs to see if they were sealing properly), so I am sharing this to discourage such activity and save a float. Happy Thanksgiving weekend.
Grant
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