The Hodaka Club Forum

Need confirmation with this Road Toad carb with the plastic floats. Do the small brass pins on the float go towards the bottom of the bowl or upwards towards the top of the carb? I'm feeling a tension with the bowl, presumably agsinst the float arms, when I put the bowl on with the pins facing upaward. Is that tension supposed to be there or do I have the floats in wrong? Victor

OK. I think I found my own answer. Looks like I was, in fact, putting the floats in the bowl incorrectly. I can see it better in this electronic picture than on my Xeroxed parts list. The horizontal pins appear to face down into the bowl. This would explain why I wasn't getting any gas flow, after pulling the bowl off last time. It just wasn't clear in my hard copy but it is more clear here! I may print this out & replace my existing carb page! Victor

So is there a place to look on the carb to identify it as a VM26SC so I can confirm this is an original Road Toad carb? Just want to be sure this time. I recall my Model 03 having a Model 93 carb on a Model 94 bottom end and Model 95 top end! Do I'd like to be sure! Matt??? Buehler??? Anyone??? Thanks! Victor

Hi Victor. First, as many times as I've rebuilt Mikuni carbs, I still go through the steps of visualizing the function of the float/needle valve function. As the bowl fills, the floats rise. The pins on the floats push up on the brass pivot piece which in turn pushes the needle into the seat which then shuts off the flow of fuel through the needle seat. Therefore, the pins have to be under the tabs on the brass pivot piece when the carb is in the operating position. If its a round slide Mikuni that came off a motorcycle, its almost certainly a VM model. On some of mine, there is a model designation stamped behind the enrichener block, but you practically need a microscope to see it. You can also simply measure the inside diameter of the throat in mm's.

Yeah, Matt, I know what you mean! I almost hate to say it, but, it reminds me of what someone else says here! "Slow down, you'll go faster." Usually I pay attention. This last time I didn't. Thankfully, I could see the shape of the float better on the micro fiche on line and answered my own question.

Ahhh success! I rode the Red Toad 4 laps around the neighborhood, with a cool down between the 2nd & 3rd laps & between the 3rd & 4th laps. Each lap was a mile. She now starts first kick or second kick every time! And it looks like I won't need the choke until it gets colder! She's running real regular, smoothly and easily, on 91 octane at 32:1. And for being 98 or 99 cc's she sure surprises me with the amount of power she puts out! I'm guessing that's the reed valves! It is a great bike!

Yee Haw!!! Victor

Awesome! Congratulations on finishing the project. I love my Toad. I agree - for a 100cc mill, that little bike rips!

And it's amazing that the old reeds that came with the 2 motors still work do very well! I was thinking they would probably have failed or dried out. But nope! 42 year old reeds & they are still going strong! Victor

They are made of really remarkable material when you think of how many millions of times they open and shut the reed cage during their functional life.

"Billions & Billions" of times Matt! Billions & Billions..... Victor

I discussed that figure over with Carl Sagan and we agree. "Billions and billions" it is.

He would have known. I loved Carl Sagan on TV. For a special he did on the possibility of multi dimensional existence beyond 3. Pretty amazing demonstration!

Pure genius, yesiree.

It was amazing to watch him. He talked about how a 2 dimensional drawing of a cube was basically a "shadow" of its 3 dimensional object. He demonstrated it by shining a light through a plexiglass cube. It left the same 2 dimensional shadow on the table's surface.

Then he said, we can't exist in a fourth dimension, but like the 2 dimensional shadow of a 3 dimensional object, we CAN create a computer generated 3 dimensional shadow of a 4 dimensional model, and proceeded to pull out a model of a 3 dimensional shadow of a 4 dimensional object, made again from plexiglass! It was an astounding thing to see.

And he concluded, that just because we are "trapped" inside 3 dimensions & could only see a shadow of a 4 dimensional object, likewise in each additional dimension, you could create a shadow of a next multidimensional object! Pretty darned amazing! I'll never forget that!

The capper was that he was drawing those conclusions half a century ago. Brilliant!!

50 years ago is only a moment in time. Most of the foundational thinking for mathematics, chemistry, and the universe were espoused before Christ. The oldest pyramids are something like 8,000 years old and are probably three dimensional shadows of a fourth dimensional object left here when the aliens went home.

Agreed, Hydraulic. While it's easy to be blown away by modern technology and I was fortunate enough to live during the time of manned space flight which certainly comprises a period of intense human ingenuity, intrepidity, and pure brass ballsiness, perhaps the purest essence of the power of the human (maybe) mind may have been manifest thousands of years ago. While my work requires me to keep one foot in the hardcore objectivity of the scientific world and the other in the artistic sphere, its the type of theory you mentioned which I find most entertainingly thought provoking.

Matt. Sometime we need to talk on the phone about the discussion I had with a physicist at New Mexico Sin Spot, the Solar Observatory bear Cloudcroft, NM. I still don't have the answers to my questions, but it would be fun to discuss it with you. I don't want to do it here, as, let's just say it's a bit "complicated," but sonetime we can talk on the phone and I'll share my thoughts & ideas with you! ; D Victor

I would enjoy that.

Here's my email. If you email me, I'll respond with my phone #! viclioce(at)yahoo.com