250SX carburetor problem

[yonson]

Am new to this site & also to trikes. Acquired an '86 ATC250SX last fall and disassembled the carb for cleaning (I have a Clymer manual which is very helpful). Upon reassembly I saw that the float goes virtually all the way up before the float valve closes and assumed that the previous owner installed the wrong one which appears to be too short. Bought a kit on epay that supposedly fits '85-'87 (package is marked '85) but the new float valve looks just like the one I have. Doing some online research I see that part number for '85 float valve is different from '86-'87. All that said, my question is this: is the later valve in fact longer than the earlier one? If so, that would certainly explain why the float rides too high, otherwise I have other problems. Thanks for any help, geezers like me need all we can get & this site seems to be a great resource. RW

[TeamGeek6]

Sounds exactly like the 85-86 R carb problem. The Keihin PJ on the 85-86 R has float pods molded on upside down so the carbs are eternally, uncurably rich. Looking at Keihins drawings shows the goof. Engineering mistake. I wasted years chasing rich fuel condition on the R till discovering this by accident.

What carb does it have?

[yonson]

This is the Keihin 08, I understand from other posts that '85 had Keihin 03.

[TeamGeek6]

Yup, PJ-03A on the '86.

Look at drawings at www.sudco.com

[Dirtcrasher]

08 is the good carb and all the floats "look" the same to me. That float goes awful high to shut off the fuel, but there is no adjustment. Only way to check is to read the float height spec or buy the 86 carb kit from another source like jetsrus.

[yonson]

The float height is nowhere near spec or level - part# for the float is the same for both years, but float valve numbers are different from '85 to '86, that's why I suspected it had been replaced with wrong valve.