Fuel leaking heavily from the bottom of carb

[HawaiiBrat]

Aloha everyone,

My 1979 Subaru Brat was last used a little over a week ago and it ran perfectly when I parked it. This morning I decided to move her into the area where I wash my cars and she fired up but then I noticed her bogging down. I get out of the drivers seat to check the engine bay and noticed the cause of bogging was because fuel was being dumped from the bottom of the carb! I panic and I turn off the engine because I've never seen this before. I was told I had a stuck float.. your thoughts?

[moosens]

Easy enough to start with gently tightening the carb mounting nuts for kicks. 

Then remove the float chamber top. Shouldn’t have to worry about the gasket but be careful of course. 

Is your sight glass ok or kind of hard to see thru ? 

[HawaiiBrat]

On 8/26/2018 at 7:07 PM, moosens said:

Easy enough to start with gently tightening the carb mounting nuts for kicks. 

Then remove the float chamber top. Shouldn’t have to worry about the gasket but be careful of course. 

Is your sight glass ok or kind of hard to see thru ? 

I was told by a few people to hit the top part of the carb very lightly as the float was probably stuck. I took the air filter off and tapped lightly with a hammer and started her up. Voila! No longer leaking fuel and running back to normal! What causes a stuck float? It is a sign I'll have to rebuild my carburetor soon?

[Subasaurus]

you need a new needle, it's located upside down on the top of the carb, but inside of it on the driver's side...

and might as well get a new float too, and a gasket if possible, it's going to keep getting stuck everytime the weather changes, happened to me everytime it would cool down outside last year.

[moosens]

I agree , but if times are tough or you just want to try a little DIY you can either get a carb kit , or even without one probably have no issue taking the float chamber top plate off and getting to know the float and needle. If you care to try you can get some 0000 steel wool and gently clean up the needle. It’s kind of touchy so no agressive action. At this time to can spray the area and blow it out.

If you can score a fresh float and needle then go for it. Don’t forget the new gas eats old carb rubber parts and leaves more residue than old school gas it was made for. See if you can get a kit or at least the accelerator pump and it’s boot - which turns to crap at the blink of an eye.

Good luck. 

[HawaiiBrat]

21 hours ago, Subasaurus said:

you need a new needle, it's located upside down on the top of the carb, but inside of it on the driver's side...

and might as well get a new float too, and a gasket if possible, it's going to keep getting stuck everytime the weather changes, happened to me everytime it would cool down outside last year.

Is there a whole kit for that?

11 hours ago, moosens said:

I agree , but if times are tough or you just want to try a little DIY you can either get a carb kit , or even without one probably have no issue taking the float chamber top plate off and getting to know the float and needle. If you care to try you can get some 0000 steel wool and gently clean up the needle. It’s kind of touchy so no agressive action. At this time to can spray the area and blow it out.

If you can score a fresh float and needle then go for it. Don’t forget the new gas eats old carb rubber parts and leaves more residue than old school gas it was made for. See if you can get a kit or at least the accelerator pump and it’s boot - which turns to crap at the blink of an eye.

Good luck. 

Don't happen to have a fresh float and needle eh?! I know you got lots of stuff!

[Subasaurus]

there is a specifit kit at Oreilly's for a Hitachi 2Barrel that includes all these parts, it was around $35 or so, includes all the gaskets, pump, needle, i think the float was separate but was like $6, i have the old box, which is in the attic which i actually need to go for this afternoon for a wire brake safety low switch on the brat, so if you need an exact part number for the kit, im pretty sure i can get that for you.

but let's rewind alittle, when i removed my old needle, there was a bunch of like "carbon" build up inside of it, and that might be preventing it from closing completely and start leaking out, clean it the same way one does with the windshield wiper sprayers, i think toilet bowl cleaner right? in a zipploc bag.

[HawaiiBrat]

8 hours ago, Subasaurus said:

there is a specifit kit at Oreilly's for a Hitachi 2Barrel that includes all these parts, it was around $35 or so, includes all the gaskets, pump, needle, i think the float was separate but was like $6, i have the old box, which is in the attic which i actually need to go for this afternoon for a wire brake safety low switch on the brat, so if you need an exact part number for the kit, im pretty sure i can get that for you.

but let's rewind alittle, when i removed my old needle, there was a bunch of like "carbon" build up inside of it, and that might be preventing it from closing completely and start leaking out, clean it the same way one does with the windshield wiper sprayers, i think toilet bowl cleaner right? in a zipploc bag.

The part number would be awesome! I'd appreciate it. 

I'll get to cleaning the needle today and see what happens.

[Subasaurus]

15561B and it's by Walker.

it came with a needle but no float, so you might want that when rebuilding the carb.

[HawaiiBrat]

6 hours ago, Subasaurus said:

15561B and it's by Walker.

it came with a needle but no float, so you might want that when rebuilding the carb.

Appreciate it man!