Maximum Carnage
CB750 Member
Need to replace my float needle valves and I understand they should be replaced as a set (needle and valve) but which needle is better regular brass or with rubber tip?
Which is a better tip?
- Thread starter Maximum Carnage
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- carburetors sohc
amc49
CB750 Guru
Brass if they run ethanol laced gasoline in your area. The rubber is slightly better at sealing but the ethanol swells it all out of shape with time.
Maximum Carnage
CB750 Member
I plan to use non-ethanol whenever possible. Any links to where I can find sets at decent price?
amc49
CB750 Guru
That may not be much of a plan, you are in a major metro area and it may well be you cannot get it. I'd be checking on that. I have to go at least 60 miles to get it, having the same issue. That doesn't work.
Look around, the sets are everywhere.........................
Look around, the sets are everywhere.........................
Maximum Carnage
CB750 Member
I'm less than 1/2 mile from a gas station that sells it, I'm good. Down load Pure APP (Android) gives you stations with non-ethanol.
Rubber tip is only thing I will run. The old metal tip needles will all leak and will give intermittent dribbles of gas on the floor if you leave the petcock on. I switch all of them over to rubber tip...end of problems.
Maximum Carnage
CB750 Member
On brass float needles you need to replace both needle and valve, is that the same with the rubber tip needles?
amc49
CB750 Guru
Maybe, maybe not. I myself never change needles 'just to do it' and often use them decades old but of course they have to be good. Metal to metal wears more than rubber but not necessarily. The rubber theoretically saves the seat but with ethanol use that goes out the window. The seat when the passage is shut off becomes the low spot and the water carried in the ethanol then settles right at the seat to corrode it.
I use that same site to find pure gas locations here too but none close, our ex-president Bush Jr. fixed that real good for us by thumbing his nose at the EPA back in the day and they made absolutely sure you can't get it almost anywhere in the state by classifying most of the major state as non-attainment (of emissions goals) areas. Thanks George.
I thought the exact same for many years about using rubber tips ONLY on needles but at some point I ran into metal only available for some bikes and began using them and I had no issues at all but then I NEVER leave a petcock on having flooded an engine to hydrolock and blow a head gasket many many years ago. Turning off petcock 100% of the time even on a new bike is a skill quickly learned or you live to regret it. The early DOHC as well as the CBX 6 (really bad those) all can be prone to leaking even with brand new parts rubber or not and why Honda began to put the vacuum demand petcocks on them after a rash of engine warranty fails from bikes on sidestand leaking to hydrolock and bend/break connecting rods.
Some of the rubber tips now can swell out of shape with only a month or two if the wrong type rubber used. Common with Chinese cheap crap parts. I choose Viton if there is a choice.
I use that same site to find pure gas locations here too but none close, our ex-president Bush Jr. fixed that real good for us by thumbing his nose at the EPA back in the day and they made absolutely sure you can't get it almost anywhere in the state by classifying most of the major state as non-attainment (of emissions goals) areas. Thanks George.
I thought the exact same for many years about using rubber tips ONLY on needles but at some point I ran into metal only available for some bikes and began using them and I had no issues at all but then I NEVER leave a petcock on having flooded an engine to hydrolock and blow a head gasket many many years ago. Turning off petcock 100% of the time even on a new bike is a skill quickly learned or you live to regret it. The early DOHC as well as the CBX 6 (really bad those) all can be prone to leaking even with brand new parts rubber or not and why Honda began to put the vacuum demand petcocks on them after a rash of engine warranty fails from bikes on sidestand leaking to hydrolock and bend/break connecting rods.
Some of the rubber tips now can swell out of shape with only a month or two if the wrong type rubber used. Common with Chinese cheap crap parts. I choose Viton if there is a choice.
