On my way home from work early one morning, my samurai was high idling when I got home. I opened up the hood to inspect the carb. What I noticed was that the choke linkage behind the choke assembly had lost a nut and a spring and some washers fell off. I called Jose, at Weber North America, and told him what happenned. He sent me out a complete new top assembly, free of charge. I put some thread lock on that little nut that fell off, and tightened a few other screws that appeared to be a little loose. I installed it and attempted to tune it. It runs, but has trouble starting and trouble keeping running.

There was some confusion when I put the float bowl on. It is triangle shaped and I installed it with the triangle point down. It is also between the clip on the little gizmo that opens and closes the valve to allow fuel into the fuel bowl.

My question is, what is the correct way to install this float, and is there a diagram on the internet that shows a detailed picture? As well, anyone have any tips on tuning this thing so I can get better milage than 21?

A little more info I forgot to mention. The pcv valve had failed and all kinds of oil had got in the air cleaner. No damage to the carb other than the gaskets were all saturated and I suspect the oil may have caused the nut to fall off not to mention the first adapter plate had worked loose.

I removed the whole carb when I got the new part, and took my time with some locktite blue and put it on all studs, nuts, and screws. It ain't coming loose now. It was also alot easier to install the carb again with the top half removed. If I could do it all over from the get go, this is how I would have done it, and hopefully someone can benifit from this info. You get a lot more consistant torque, it goes alot quicker, and you don't damage the nuts or the studs trying to work a wrench in there. My only mistake now is I don't understand how that  float bowl went, and if there is a way if necessary to raise the fuel level.

go to Ack's FAQ (link in signature, below) and do a search for weber.

There you will find a PDF document with lots of exploded view pictures of the carburetor that will help you figure out how the float is installed.  Also in the search results is a link to an article |removethispart|@ iZook.com written by Kevin "Sarge" Lafferty describing the basics of a weber tuneup.

Also, one way to reduce the possibility of stalling while going up an incline is to install the carb "backwards" - ie make the choke side of the carburetor face the valve cover.  This will require a bit of simple throttle cable re-routing.

Hope this helps!

Slightly different carb but very informative. Thanx. I still can't tell from the pic how the float bowl goes. I assume flat side up and triangle point down. I put the lever between the clip on the needle thing. That's the part that confuses me. I just looked at it and tried to use some logic by putting it on and seeing as to what kind of looked right. Not sure if I got it right.

 As far as setting the fuel mix, I saw something from northern equip that analyzes the fuel mix. Any idea if that thing works. It seems like a good way to tune with out guessing.  Any idea on what to do as far as a tach? It looks like I need to get a timing light (had one that was crap so I took it back), a tach, and something to check the fuel mix. This sucker has always idled kind of rough unless I sped up the idle. Maybe I'm crazy to think that this engine carb combo could actually run smooth? I am at about 1900 ft. so I don't even know what to set the timing at.

I looked at that info and it seemed somewhat technical if not intimidating. I'll try it, but if there is a more sure way to get her smooth, I am open to suggestions.