Float needle seat

hh76 · Jun 15, 2012

I've been dealing with a leaking float needle in one of my Amals, and was wondering if there is a fix? Can just the seat be replaced?

I've got the stay up kits, and new needles. When I cleaned the bowls, this one had considerable build up on the seat, and I either didn't get it all, or I damaged it trying.

DogT · Jun 15, 2012

Yes, I went through this last year. Go here. leaky-float-bowl-seat-t8025.html

Make sure your needles seat and also your petcocks don't leak.

Dave
69S

rvich · Jun 15, 2012

That is a good thread DogT. I missed it when it was current. There is probably a cottage industry for somebody to turn out seat polishing tools to sell. My guess is you could polish that seat for a long time before it was unusable...and you could probably sell one of those tools to just about everybody who still has Amal carbs on their bike.

Russ

DogT · Jun 15, 2012

All it is is a piece of 3/16" aluminum rod and probably any compound will work.

Dave
69S

rvich · Jun 15, 2012

Sure, but if you turned the end of it to match the angle of the original seats, then suddenly you have a precision tool!

DogT · Jun 15, 2012

Actually the original seats did not have a taper. They were just straight cut with a sharp edge at the top. At least that is what the other one I have is like. I think one started leaking and someone put a drill in it, it may even have been me, to make a taper to fit the needle. Anyhow all I did was smooth out the taper more to the shape of the needle so the needle could seat without leaking. It was all done by eye ball, there was nothing precision about the whole process. I used a regular file to cut the taper on the rod. It just happened to work. Pure luck.

It just shows you how you can work on these old bikes.

Now to check out my old EW petcocks. I'd love to get them drip free.

Dave
69S

pete.v · Jun 15, 2012

To answer you question, I thought you could get just the seat but I couldn't find it. You can, however, get a replacement bowl fairly reasonable. There are differant size so lab will have to come on and clarify. Because of the need for a curtain size, reconditioning what you have may ruin the proper flow. It would be interesting to see what you have there, as far as bad seating goes.

2 sizes I think, 0.062 and 0.1 for the mark1's
http://www.amalcarb.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Id=869

I would think that there are many spare bowls on the shelves of the members that are fair enough to use. You can try the "wanted" section and see if anyone bites.

rvich · Jun 15, 2012

DogT said:
Actually the original seats did not have a taper. They were just straight cut with a sharp edge at the top. At least that is what the other one I have is like. I think one started leaking and someone put a drill in it, it may even have been me, to make a taper to fit the needle. Anyhow all I did was smooth out the taper more to the shape of the needle so the needle could seat without leaking. It was all done by eye ball, there was nothing precision about the whole process. I used a regular file to cut the taper on the rod. It just happened to work. Pure luck.

It just shows you how you can work on these old bikes.

Now to check out my old EW petcocks. I'd love to get them drip free.

Dave
69S

I ASSumed it was tapered. I will take a closer look the next time my Amals are apart. Doesn't mean you can't sell the tool though!

Float needle seat

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