VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1912-1928 1928 Crushed Carb Float?

My Dad has been getting his 28 running so it can go to a new home. When he was trying to put a good carb together he found this float in one of his spares. Do you guys know what could have caused this?

Water in the float bowl and then it froze?????

That is the only explanation I have come up with.

Good thought guys, I did not see the bowl so I am not sure if there were signs of water. Does water expand that much when frozen?

Yes.

Sam,
There are two factors here. One is the expansion of ice compared to water. The other is dramatically reduced internal pressure in the float. Without the pressure of the ice flattening the arc on the bottom of the float it will not collapse.

I don't think it's cold that caused it but heat. It has been hot and huge pressure has built up, some air has escaped via the soldered joints. When cooled, the float has been drawn in by vacuum. That's my prize winning theory !!

Al

If you buy me a six pack I'll vote for you. Otherwise I stick with my theory.

If the float has leaks around the solder joint, when it gets hot and then cools, the vacuum will suck in gasoline from the float bowl thus displacing some of the air inside of the float. It will continue to do so until the float has too much gasoline inside and then the float will sink and the carburetor will flood.

Maybe someone tried to clean the carb with compressed air with the float still inside.

I thought that the carb was clearly on a poorly prepared supercahrged 28.

On the same truck can you guys tell us the proper timing setting and the best way to set it?

The truck is running but has little power. It has not been timed sense the engine was apart and my Dad thinks this may be the culprit.

Tell me what that monster-like round pot looking thing hanging on the firewall is and I'll tell you why the float collapsed.

It is a vac tank, it pulls fuel from the tank and then it gravity flows to the carb.

It is a G&G Vacuum tank.

Timing is set at 25 degrees before top dead centre(No.1 piston coming up to the top of the compression stroke)with the advance/retard lever in the full advance position.Easiest way is to remove the rocker cover and turn the engine over with the plugs out.Watch for the opening then closing of No.1 intake valve,keep turning the engine until the 25 degree mark on the flywheel is opposite the pointer in the flywheel housing.
If the flywheel hasn't been moved in the past,it should be right.

Thank you for the info!

With everything set as above do you set the distributer so the points are breaking on the number one cylinder?

Forgot that bit!The points should be just opening with the rotor button pointing to the No.1 cylinder lead in the cap.

So you could use a timing light if you could get the wires to reach in the cab to see the flywheel?

You can use a timing light if the flywheel was installed in the correct position. You have a 1 in 6 chance that the flywheel was reinstalled correctly the last time it was removed. I talked to your dad today and gave him the method I use (actually used it today) to time the Chevy 4 bangers.

Thanks Chipper!

Looks like the flywheel is on right but there does not seem to be enough room to turn the distributer to get it to the 25 degrees. There is a condenser on the distributor that hits so it may be installed slightly off.

Hopefully we can get it set correctly so the old girl can get headed to it's new home.

You can remove the distributor and move it one tooth away from the interference. Or just move it as far as you can and see if it has enough power to get on the trailer.