72 - T500 J Carb Float Level & Bowl Gaskets

[Syd]

Quick question about the correct height for the float level on a 72 T500 J. I set them at 27.3mm, however they seem to be high as over time the bowls are showing gas stains outside. All of the jets and float needles are new, however do you think dropping the level down to 26mm or similar could help? The other question relates to fitting new gasket as over time they also seem to weep and you have to try to adjust the 8 bowel screws to compensate. Someone suggested you should soak new gaskets first in petrol before you assembly them in the bowls to help the seating of the gaskets etc, could this been a solution?

[Warehouse1001]

Often carbs will weep from the bowls warping. That happens from over tightening the bowl screws. One thing I do on every carb rebuild is flatten the bowl gasket surface on a piece of 320 grit sand paper taped to a piece of glass. You'll be able to tell very quickly if they're warped by looking for high and low spots after a few passes on the paper. As for soaking the gaskets, I never have but that's not to say it wouldn't help. I don't have issues if I flatten the bowl surface and use good gaskets. Good luck!

[Syd]

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea and also simple to do. Float height - just wondering about reducing the float height down a bit by 1mm to provide a bit of margin. They are the original floats and pins, therefore maybe at 27.3mm there could be a bit of slack in these parts and in reality the float level could be a little higher when in use?

[Warehouse1001]

Only way to know for sure if floats are correctly set is to measure the fuel level. I always set my floats that way on my Kawasaki triples and have had good success. I'm sorry I don't know anything about float height or fuel levels on a T500. Hopefully someone will jump in here and help you out.

[jabcb]

You can check the actual fuel level using the tool shown here:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11656&hilit=float&start=6


I had problems with leaking float bowls on a T250.
Got several of those little level check tools via eBay.
Problem was solved via a combo of using the level tools & bowl warping fix that Warehouse1001 described.

The float bowl need a bit of roughness on the surface to bite into the gasket, so don’t use too fine of a file or sand paper.

[Syd]

Thanks for the information