At my wit's end Rochester 2 barrel float/needle sticking

If the car is running fine at 3 psi I'd leave it there. What sort of fuel pump ya running?

 

OOur

You need to know :
How much fuel pressure you have out if the pump at carb inlet
how much fuel pressure your particular carb is designed to work with.

Without that minimal amount of information you are helpless - with it you are way ahead of the game.

 

These are about as basic a carb as you can have. I used to rebuild them at my kitchen table (when the mrs was not around...). The float should move up and down easily and not catch on the carb body. The little clip that holds the needle is usually the culprit if it's not on right.

Bob

 

So, after installing the pressure regulator, the car was running great and I drove it about 50 miles. Then, coming home last night it started acting up again. I managed to limp it back to town (about 20 nerve racking miles) and wheel it into a local gas station. A friend of mine stopped by and we pulled the top of the carb off.

The float that I had installed earlier trying to (unsuccessfully) troubleshoot the problem ended up filling full of gas! We got a third float, swapped that in, and I drove it home, then to work this morning.

My best guess is that it was originally a fuel pressure issue and the original float was working fine (the first one was dry inside when I took it out), then I swapped the float and added the regulator, fixing the first problem but unintentionally sabotaging it by adding a junk float.

I'm going to put some more miles on it and see if it acts up again, I'll report back with my findings.

It seemed to run fine at 3psi on the regulator, but everyone I talked to said that might be just a little low, I might switch it up to 4, we'll see.

 

Two bad floats?

Ok try my method and see if you can fix the bad float.. And test the one you just put in, no offense but with your luck with floats ya might just wanna be sure

 

i know this is bumping a very very old thread, but i am suffering from something similar, and i cant figure out where to go from here.

the needle and seat it had doesnt work, fuel just flows right past it and floods out the engine.
the needle and seat that came in the carb kit is entirely too short and causes the engine to flood out, it also seems to have caused the accelerator pump to stop working. it floods to the point of fuel dripping off the throttle shafts. i have a 1959 Mercury (mercruiser maybe?) Holley 2300 with external vent on the bowl aswell as the main vent, so different carb. apologies again for the hijack.

 

Like this?
https://carbkitsource.com/kits/ck0728.html

https://quadrajetparts.com/holley-2300-carburetor-rebuild-4081k-1968-p-1533.html

 

Man, this brought back some really bad memories. I have went through everything mentioned above and then some with the roch. 2bbl. Flooding-after all the above. Here's the solution i found after mucho $$$, cussing, recussing, and the hammer threat. The freakin' pin that holds the float on mine would "walk" out of its hole and cause the needle to stay open. It was a long pin too, about 1/4" out on both ends. Solution: teeny dab of jb weld on one end of the pin, could still remove it but could not "walk". I found it by waiting after it flooded, pulled the top off very carefully and saw the float crooked and the needle way up, pin out of its hole. Hope this helps you.

 

If that regulator is the little chrome one with the dial, here's some info. I used one on my 3x2 and set it with the dial, nothing seemed to change much. I used a master gage (1/10%) and checked its output, dial compared to actual reading on the gage. The dial said 3, it was actually 2.1, set it at 4 and actual was 3.1---end of my problems. Moral: don't trust the dial reading.

 

Sorry I didn't read the whole post..

Are you sure your not pinching the little rubber gasket at the carbs fuel filter and a couple little pieces are holding the needed up and keeping it from closing.

 

PM @carbking .

John

 

I made an account just to thank the Internet gods for sending me this 13 year old thread. I had been chasing the exact same problem the OP described. I had the carb apart four or five times. Tried several pumps. Delphi & Carter put out too much pressure. I found an OEM air horn on the Bay of E. Put in a new choke shaft. I even sent the carb out to have it rebuilt. Found OEM pumps on Ebay as well, but one was a counterfeit Carter wrapped in a Delco box. The other had the Delco stamp but still spit out too much fuel. That came from Mexico, so maybe someone's making counterfeit "OEM" or something. Don't know.
I finally found a pump on Summit that claimed to put out factory PSI of 5-7. It's like the Edelbrock adjustable pump, where the inlet/outlet need to be "clocked" to the right position. Trouble is, there were six screws holding the pieces together and no clock position would have put the outlet where the steel pipe met it.
I took the steel pipe out to Ohio Hydraulics and they made a PTFI (Teflon's generic name) steel-braided line that I could bend to fit. Didn't even have to clock the new pump.
I had been fighting, cussing, replacing, rebuilding, and generally throwing parts at this thing for the past year. Now I'm happy to say that the advice here from 13 years ago has guided me home. No more spitting out the inlet fitting at the air horn.
I'm fixed!
1969 Malibu convertible, 350 Rochester 2 bbl. Runs like brand new.

 

See, this is the kind of stuff that forums are really good for, old info comes back up to help someone else over a decade later. Technically, the car you fixed is a bit off topic but the topic isn't off topic so I'd hope that's OK, should be fine with no pics posted.

Super glad you posted the solution to your problem, so many of these threads just go dead when no one follows up on what did or didn't solve the problem.

I actually joined a different forum recently to post a thank-you response for some also-old info that really helped me out, and to mention a new wheel-balancing method that I discovered for some wheels (that I won't mention here because it's O/T but you get the idea).

The saddest part is, I parked my '52 Ford in my house garage soon after this thread out of frustration and I never really went back to it, I need to get it figured out, along with some other bugs it had. It's really too nice of a car to just sit around like it has. I've become somewhat-better at fixing mechanical things since then.

 

I had the same problem with my 2g tri carb setup. It would work great for a long time and then just out of no where the float would stick. Gas would start overflowing into the motor. I would carry a 8” piece of coat hanger and poke the float down one of the carb vents and it would fix the problem. I ended up fixing it long term by running a return line back to the fuel tank. I used my fuel pressure regulator to control the return line pressure. This keeps the fuel pressure consistent and not dead heading into the carbs.

 

OK here’s a problem I had with one. If I’m not mistaken, there is a small metal gasket under the seat part of the needle and seat where it screws into the carb body. And some of these kits have two gaskets that fit that needle and seat body that look the same. They are not, and will allow gas to leak in under the needle and seat body, even if the needle is shut. This can be found by assembling the top of the carburetor, blowing in the inlet while holding the carb top upside down and the float shut. Spray some soap or something around the needle valve body, and see if it’s leaking where it screws into the carburetor top. Drove me nuts one day.

 

Carry a fire extinguisher until you get it sorted out

 

@Squablow Hope you get the chance to get back to the Ford. As you have probably read over the intervening years, those 'regulators' are as valuable as gumball machine wedding rings.
A few things from all the comments caught my eye. In no particular order,
The float pivot rod should be long enough that it won't walk out. It should hit on the main body before it clears the top axle support, when assembled.
See how far it sticks out on each end?

Floats are adjusted for proper shutoff height and drop or droop, as mentioned. Important. This is normally roughly when the top is flipped upside down the float is pushing against the needle, seating it. The top of the float (bottom when flipped) and the gasket surface of the top are pretty level, but this is measured in 1/16s or 1/32s. The rebuild kit will have all the measurements laid out.
Fuel pressure is a big part of this. A float acting on the small area of the needle exerts enough pressure to overcome the expected fuel pressure plus a bit. Too much pressure will overcome the float. Just like pushing a ball underwater. The cheap mass market gauges and regulators are not to be trusted.
Yes, there is a washer between the seat and the top.
Clean fuel is important, although the ol' 2bbl can handle a lot of crud.

 

that how I look when I realize I’m responding to a 13 year old thread

 

I was hesitant about replying, but I just couldn't find the thorough analysis presented here at my familiar message board haunt. They're all Holleys and Quadrajets and seem to look down on the existence of the humble Rochester 2 bbl. Yeah, I'd be better off going retromod with fuel injection or even a throttle body, but I don't really have the shop to run a return line myself. The old 2 bbl is simple, but I didn't really grasp the problems with pressure from the pump until I read this thread.
Hope the '52 is on the road again soon.