WilliamTO-35
Silver Member
Does anyone still sell carburetor float needles and seats for my Carter UT carburetor from my 1955 Ferguson TO-35 that are made in the USA ? A few years ago the American made supply of such older carburetor and fuel system parts seems to have run out, and all such parts I can now find are made in China. At the same time as I had to start buying Chinese carburetor parts, I started having flooding problems with my carburetor. The new float needle and seat works ok for a few days, but then starts leaking and flooding the carburetor. While the engine is running, it doesn't flood . But before starting the engine, or after shutting it down, I have to be quick to turn on or off the petcock at the carb. fuel inlet. This problem has plagued me for several years, and I've had the carburetor off and on a dozen times or more, and replaced the float needle and seat several times. My tank and fuel are clean, and I use the clear plastic inline fuel filters sold by NAPA. (There is no micron rating on those filters.)
The float level and drop are correct, and the original float assist spring is in place. The floats have no fuel inside them , and don't rub the float chamber. The carb. vent is not plugged. I started having this problem even before ethanol showed up in my gasoline.
I think there's something wrong with the needle tip material ( looks like Viton ) or the needle/seat geometry. These needles and seats may not have any ability to deal with the small particles that get through standard fuel filters, which probably have trapping ratings of around 50 microns. I may have to find a 10 micron filter and try that. Or, the fuel may distort the Chinese needle tip material after a few days. It's odd that I had no such problems for 20 years with American made carb. parts, but as soon as I had to use Chinese parts, the problem started. I had a similar problem with the fuel sediment bowl/ shutoff . My original one got damaged, and the Chinese one I tried to replace it with was so poorly made as to be useless.
The float level and drop are correct, and the original float assist spring is in place. The floats have no fuel inside them , and don't rub the float chamber. The carb. vent is not plugged. I started having this problem even before ethanol showed up in my gasoline.
I think there's something wrong with the needle tip material ( looks like Viton ) or the needle/seat geometry. These needles and seats may not have any ability to deal with the small particles that get through standard fuel filters, which probably have trapping ratings of around 50 microns. I may have to find a 10 micron filter and try that. Or, the fuel may distort the Chinese needle tip material after a few days. It's odd that I had no such problems for 20 years with American made carb. parts, but as soon as I had to use Chinese parts, the problem started. I had a similar problem with the fuel sediment bowl/ shutoff . My original one got damaged, and the Chinese one I tried to replace it with was so poorly made as to be useless.