16-01-2019, 01:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 16-01-2019, 01:54 PM by Steve Jones.)
I did exactly this before Christmas to three floats and took them apart at the same time to repair dents. The float is sealed to the bottom with a blob of solder. With a 2mm drill bit, drill this out. There's already a hole behind the solder. With a bit of shaking, you can then drain the contents. Boil in a kettle and then let it stand for 24 hours and then carefully melt the solder around the seam using a small gas soldering torch. It requires minimal heat for it to separate. Once split, you can clean the two halves and press out any dents.
To re-assemble, hold each half in turn in aluminium soft jaws in the vice (gently!), heat around the solder to the rim and wipe excess away. Once done, you'll find that the two halves can be fitted back together and then, again, holding the float gently in the soft jaws, heat the seam and run new solder into the joint. You can do about a third of the circumference at one go, turning the float to get to the next third. Finally, a blob of solder into the hole in the bottom and job done.
I should say that I don't have any cars that use Zenith carbs these days but I did have some duff floats. My aim was to respond to a challenge from Charles Ping who said he didn't think it was easy to do
Steve
To re-assemble, hold each half in turn in aluminium soft jaws in the vice (gently!), heat around the solder to the rim and wipe excess away. Once done, you'll find that the two halves can be fitted back together and then, again, holding the float gently in the soft jaws, heat the seam and run new solder into the joint. You can do about a third of the circumference at one go, turning the float to get to the next third. Finally, a blob of solder into the hole in the bottom and job done.
I should say that I don't have any cars that use Zenith carbs these days but I did have some duff floats. My aim was to respond to a challenge from Charles Ping who said he didn't think it was easy to do
Steve