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Kevin: These are the most common problems with floats on carburetors I rebuild. 1) The float has fallen apart either from excess vibration or excess heat melting the solder. 2)the float does not "float" due to a pinholeleak or a crack in the solder. Shake the float itself and you will feel gas moving inside the float. I have tried to drain and resolder floats with no luck and besides you can generally buy a new float fairly cheap. 3) I have found the float tends to "stick" along the sides of the carb. Fisrt thing you need to do and the last thing you do after a rebuild is to twist the carb. in your hands. You should hear or feel the float moving. If not take apart and CAREFULLY bend one or the other sides to adjust the fit, then assemble & twist again. 4) many older carbs. will be rusty or sticky enough from varnish to cause the float to stick on the pivot axle. Make sure float & needle valve combo move freely. 5) if after rebuilding the carb you still have gas leaking out, many times this can be fixed by bending the float down slightly so it will shut the fuel off sooner. 6) make sure you have the pivot bracket sides close but not tight against the float and that the axle "IS" tight by clamping with the split end of the pivot bracket.(I found out the hard way by having a 300 carb that I rebuilt cause a gas fire. Luckily the fire was put out without too much damage and the tractor in question just happened to be owned by a relative"WHEW". Near as I can tell on the carb I rebuilt I did not get the float axle clamped tightly enough as well as the pivot bracket sides were to far apart. Vibration etc. caused the float axle to slide out and the float "fell" cockeyed into the bowl which in turn cused the fuel to gush out hitting a hot motor and starting the fire. Thank god it was put out quickly, but I had some serious questions about my ability thrown my way. I guess that is one way to learn!! If you have any more questions thow a post my way. Merry Christmas & happy New Year.
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