Long Term Test of Seal-All for Carb Floats - Update

[MaxPete]

Well, nonetheless, that is very encouraging news indeed Dude!

Pete

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Do let us know if these turn out to be genuine Mikuni floats.

Received the floats today from Z1, which is a sister company to MikesXS.
There is no apparent evidence to suggest that they are genuine Mikuni floats.
The soldering looks pretty good
The alignment of the floats with the center armature seems to be good.
Not a bad deal, I think, for 14 bucks each.

 

[grizld1]

You might try Niche Cycle Supply, Dude; it's become my go-to source for carb parts. They sell both Chiwanese repops and genuine Mikuni bits, and they indicate which is which clearly and accurately. And they don't have their employees posing as members and shilling for pirated products here, either!

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

You might try Niche Cycle Supply, Dude; it's become my go-to source for carb parts. They sell both Chiwanese repops and genuine Mikuni bits, and they indicate which is which clearly and accurately. And they don't have their employees posing as members and shilling for pirated products here, either!

Yup, thanks ! I'll log this info for future reference.
Back last winter I bought a MC rebuild kit for my RD350 from them at an very low price.

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

I installed the float from Z1 Enterprises in my Mikuni VM 30SC carb today.
Not only was the fitment good, it was within 1 mm of the required fuel level !
Therefore, I had to make no adjustment whatsoever to the float.
Plug-n-play.
.
.

 

[Tony Harrell]

So, I tried Seal-All on my floats. It is working, but I have reservations.

View attachment 121127
I have a LOT of bad floats. I took a few of them, and really slathered the Seal-All on. My thinking was that I would not only seal the hole, but also reinforce the brass, preventing future holes. Seal-All is basically a contact cement, and if you have ever tried to brush-on contact cement, then you know why my slathering looks so messy and un-even.
I let the repair cure for the recommended time of 6 hours for full cure. I then subjected the floats to gggGary's test: submerge the floats in hot water. I use my hottest tap water in an extra-deep bucket, and I let it sit overnight when I do this test.
Well, as you can see from the pic above, after soaking in water, the cured Seal-All changed from clear to milky-white! That was disturbing. After several hours in the Texas sun, the cloudiness cleared, and the Seal-All went back to clear.

View attachment 121128
Two of my floats failed the test, simply because I missed holes -- they can be EXTREMELY hard to see. The rotted float above was by far the worst. While inspecting the failure, I found that I could pretty easily peel the Seal-All repair off in one piece.
I would feel a lot better about Seal-All if it adhered better. I prepped the floats by cleaning with a rotating steel wire wheel on a bench grinder. I thought that would leave a nicely toothed surface, but maybe it polished instead? I briefly considered etching the brass with acid, but realized that would just risk making more holes and rot.

So, I am now running with one of the repaired floats that passed the submersion test. I do not have total confidence in the repair, but that's okay. I don't mind having to re-do the repair, as long as I get at least a couple years out of it. In my experience, a sunken float will not strand you.

One more thing, and this has been noted by others: it can be EXTREMELY hard to find small holes and cracks. I have had floats with gas in them, or with water in them from the submersion test, and you can shake them forever and the hole or crack will never reveal itself. I think the old gas varnishes over the hole, sealing it. To get the fluid out you have to find the original hole or crack, and then drill a hole in it to enlarge it. Then shake as much out as you can, and put it in the sun. If you are impatient, you can drill a second hole, and you can then use compressed air to dry the inside out.

I wanted to show off my pin vices that I use to drill really small holes (above pic). A pin vice is a hand drill for very small bits. My pin vices date back to when I was bout 13 (I'm 60 now), and I built a wooden clipper ship model. I still have all of the specialty tools that I bought for that project, but the pin vices get the most use.
The one on top is by Central Hardware Manufacturing Co., and you can buy similar ones today. It has four different-size collets.
The one on the bottom is by X-Acto, and is obsolete. It has two collets, and will hold extremely small bits.

One final old story while I am rambling: So, as I was told, the Germans were proud of how small they could make drill bits. They sent a few of their finest tiny bits to the Japanese to show off how small they were. The Japanese then sent them back. The Germans looked at them under a microscope, and discovered that the Japanese had drilled holes in them.

I sucked it out like snake venom