So I’ve been accumulating parts to rebuild my carburetors, and instead of buying kits with questionable parts, I have been shopping for original OEM parts and Mikuni jets and floats.
I gotta tell you it seems like a crap shoot some times. Especially with these early carbs.
I paid a premium for what was advertised as high quality OEM floats, when I got them they were dark and tarnished and although they appeared straight, the solder work looked like amateur work. It was so rough they ground it down in places. I took some brasso and shined them up, but are they really OEM? Who knows?
This is the factory float that came out of my carbs ( shined up )
The new replacement ( shined up)
Original , note the solder work.
And the replacement.
After reading 2M’s excellent article on replacement floats I did measure them and they are exactly the same size as the originals.
Then I was looking for a replacement choke plunger. They seem to be rare, so I was happy to find an eBay seller, (whom I’ve done business with in the past and had no troubles) who said he had new reproduction ones. Here is what I got. My original is on the left in these photos.
I’m sure I could insist on a refund, but time I package these up and ship them back, I’d be lucky to have enough of a refund to buy a taco.
It truly is Caveat Emptor on the wild wild interweb!