Amal Floats

So, 71 750 Original Amals.
Couple of weeks ago I had a float stick. I ordered some gaskets and seals and finally got to it today.
I pulled the bowls off with the carbs still attached to the bike. Wonder of wonders, the bowls were almost perfectly clean. They have not been off the bike for at least 2 years and it does sit quite a bit. The floats (I assume are OE) are white plastic type material and have Amal stamped on them. They appear to be in PERFECT condition. No sign of ethanol damage, they are not heavy or appear to be soaking up fuel. The needles are plastic and very pointy also appearing to be in perfect condition. Is there any reason to change them or do any fooling around other that setting the level? They look virtually new.

i would change the float needles to the viton tipped type, less likely to leak

MikeM said:

So, 71 750 Original Amals.
Couple of weeks ago I had a float stick. [snipped] Is there any reason to change them or do any fooling around other that setting the level? They look virtually new.

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Most likely the float did not stick. You probably got a small piece of debris caught between the float needle and it's seat. As the previous lister mentioned, replace those cheesy plastic float needles with the much better Viton rubber tipped brass needles available from most vendors of Amal parts. Pull the petcocks out of your fuel tank and clean out the tank. It's pointless to clean your carburetors and not clean out the rest of the system. Be sure to clean out the filters in the banjo fittings on the bottom of the floats.

The old-style plastic floats are ok if they've not been compromised, but the new Stay-Up floats with the metal hinge and needle retainer are much easier to set to correct level. No more pounding the float seats up and down, just tweak the needle retainer.

Yes, nothing wrong with the stay up floats and the viton tipped needles. Good improvements.

The Viton needles can be used with the stock seats and floats?

MikeM said:

The Viton needles can be used with the stock seats and floats?

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Yes, but I suggest you use the latest aluminium needles (622/197AL) http://amalcarb.co.uk/light-weight-alum ... n-tip.html

http://amalcarb.co.uk/optimising-mark-1 ... uel-levels

Needle Valve

If your float chamber is fitted with a brass needle valve, you may find the valve sealing under its own weight, before the float has risen far enough to press it shut. Symptoms of this problem can be that the carburetter takes a long time to tickle, hesitates on pickup and does not idle reliably. A Viton tipped aluminium needle valve is now available that overcomes this problem. It is now fitted as standard equipment to all new Mark 1 Concentric carburetters.

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It appears as though these floats and new aluminum needles could be fitted by just removing the bowls, and without removing the carbs from the bike.
Anybody see a problem with that idea?

Mr. Rick said:

It appears as though these floats and new aluminum needles could be fitted by just removing the bowls, and without removing the carbs from the bike.
Anybody see a problem with that idea?

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That's what I did if I remember correctly.

Thank you, Mr B !

I can tell you now that the bowls come off in about 2 minutes. Easy, very easy. No need to remove anything else.