Fixing a persistant Float Valve Plug leak

[VFR750]

Each Zenith TIN carb body has two large plugs covering the float valves. And it seems when machined at the factory, the sealing surface gained local bumps at each hex machine cut. So they have always had (6) bumps that prevented them from sealing, without over torquing the plug. If you look carefully at the plug surface, you can seel the shiny bumps.

Paul Abbott at Performance Oriented mentioned his way of fixing that. I shamelessly followed his lead:


I cut a hole in a 1/4" thick aluminum bar and used 320, 400, and 800 wet sandpaper to re-cut the surface. Wrap the sandpaper around the plate, cut a hole in the sandpaper with an X-acto #11 blade. With a 14MM socket and extension, rotate the plug against the paper. Stop occasionally to clean off the paper. 320 takes the bumps off, 400 and 800 clean up and smooth the surface scratches from the 320 grit.

It worked great! Plug now seals right the first time.