The Hodaka Club Forum

I am having difficulty getting a carb bowl to fill up.
I have a brand new petcock & I have gas flow at the fuel line. The fuel entry tube has been flushed with carb cleaner and when I spray down the entry tube the carb cleaner comes out.
I’ve cleaned the float valve and needle, it all seems to be working properly. The floats are installed with the pins to the top when holding the open bowl. I’ve set the bar for the floats level with the edge of the carb, but I have a dry fuel bowl when I turn the petcock open.
Any other ideas? The bike will fire up when I put gas down the spark plug hole, but unless I get fuel to the bowl, I can’t run it..... Victor

victor excuse me for asking this out loud but ...do you have fuel in the tank?

Victor,
if you're getting fuel down the line, from the tank, then it sounds like your carb may not be venting or the fuel float valve isn't letting the fuel in. I'd suggest taking the carb off and giving it a good once over. Try blowing compressed air through all the passages to check for blockage. Also, which bike are you working on, I know you have a few irons in the fire?

Good luck.

Bev

Hello Victor, I've had very similar problems before, way back.

I won't venture a guess as to what is wrong, but I have a practical suggestion that helped me. Take the float bowl off, that's all, then put the whole thing back together, minus the float bowl. Turn on the petcock, and see what happens, you can move the floats up and down by hand and shut the flow off and on, and diagnose from there. If nothing flows you can then remove the floats and needle and diagnose from that point back. All under safe conditions, of course.

Enjoy the process!

-Stever

Stever. I tried that. That’s how I knew the gas was coming through the float needle valve.

I’m just crazy stupid. I had the floats in the bowl upside down. I thought the pins had to be up to make contact with the float arm. But it was shutting the float valve off.

I reversed the position of the floats & voila. Bowls filled with fuel & bike started. But it was running too rich and 4 stroking. I remove the carb and dropped the main jet from 230 to 180. Then it decided to get even with me and stopped giving me spark! I walked away at that point. I was just too frustrated. I’ll work on it tomorrow after I’ve had a chance to calm down. I hope it didn’t burn a brand new condenser, but it was running and then, NOPE! Pulled the plug and tested & no spark.
This bike is going to be the death of me. But, I SHALL PREVAIL!!!!!.......... Victor

Bev, the bike is my Wombat frame with the Reeded Combat Wombat motor. Read what I told Stever..... Victor

Nope, not stupid my friend, lots of us have been there for sure. Walking away for a bit like you are doing can work wonders. Good luck!

Stever.....

Well I found it. The wire came loose from the condenser. Soldered it back in place and reassembled. Fires up nicely now, EXCEPT, the idle is too high.

I have the incorrect needle in this carb, but I’ve ordered a 5F21 from Terry. The carb has a 1.5 slide in it instead of a 2.0. This is a VM26 03 Wombat carb. Hoping it works well with the correct needle in it.

Is there a way to adjust the idle down if the brass cable holder on the carb is screwed all the way down? I’m hoping it’s just that I have the wrong throttle on the bars until a Hodaka throttle housing comes in the mail from Bruce.

Tiny misfits can sure add up.... Victor

Have you maxed out the tweaking possibilities of the float height (idle adjustment) screw on the left side of the carburetor. The brass one with the visible spring.

Matt, you might want to reconsider the first sentence in your two sentence message just above. The idle adjustment screw has nothing to do with float height - so I'm a bit stumped about what you meant.
Ed

Ed reminded me about the idle screw last evening. The DPO had it screwed all the way in! Idle is much better now that I backed it out! Who the heck screws their idle screw all the way in??? Victor

Sorry Captain, that should read "Slide height" adjustment screw.