Floats

Problems and Their Diagnosis: With brass floats, the floating "pontoon" is typically constructed of at least two brass sections soldered together along a seam. Then a tiny hole used to equalize internal and external temperatures is soldered shut to complete the assembly process. Since all of these points are submerged in gasoline during engine operation, leakage problems can later occur at any place that was soldered. Repairing these floats is quite challenging and replacement is usually preferred unless the part is no longer available. If your engine is the least bit hard starting after it has warmed up, or if your exhaust has a rich gasoline odor, you probably have carburetor problems, and a bad float is one of the possibilities. Other symptoms include poor gas mileage and, of course, if the engine is flooding.