Alloy balls in carb bowl.

[kev edwards]

I drained my carbs off today and 4 alloy balls came out of number 1 bowl, never seen this before, they are around 1mm across and surfaces are quite rough, the carbs are 28mm pumpers that I put on around 2 years ago, they were sonic cleaned and flushed with solvent cleaner and followed with petrol then blown dry with air, they are not steel like the plugs for the drillings, was wondering if they are from the manufacturing process, these carbs had hardly seen any use and have no wear marks even.

[warren3200gt]

Are they magnetic? (alloy/steel)

[kev edwards]

Are they magnetic? (alloy/steel)

First thing I tried was to put a magnet to them.

[gray]

was there not an octane booster thing you could buy ( and maybe still can) which was a a mesh bag of small balls you put in the tank? Dunno if it works, but the ad looked tempting.
Take the tank off, drain it and see if there's more balls rattling in there, along with a burst bag.
No 1 float bowl is where solid stuff might drain towards if the bike was on the side stand, no 3 would be the other possibility, but less likely.

[kev edwards]

No octane boosters in tank, it's a tank I bought and had painted so completely cleaned and vacuumed out prior to paint, how would they get by the float valve, will put that theory to test this week as I have float valves in my parts bin.

[warren3200gt]

Droppings from the Kawasaki carburetor fairies.

[kev edwards]

Droppings from the Kawasaki carburetor fairies.

I am thinking something like that myself, maybe when originally cast they were tumbled after to get rid of casting burrs and these got stuck out of sight somewhere and have come out recently.

[kev edwards]

This rules out coming from the tank, no way are thse passing through float valve.

[gray]

agreed , that puts my theory in the shit

[Hard Road]

are they defo alloy ? grab one with a pair of pliers and see if it crushes easy, ive seen things like this form from bits of grit and role about picking up material and forming a ball. it also happens in tubeless tyres.

[kev edwards]

are they defo alloy ? grab one with a pair of pliers and see if it crushes easy, ive seen things like this form from bits of grit and role about picking up material and forming a ball. it also happens in tubeless tyres.

First thing i done followed by heating to see if it was lead.

[z1bman]

I once had to rebuild a MG Montego turbo engine that had seized & when i removed the sump there was a packet of Rothmans cigarettes in the sump the owner said the sump or the engine had never been removed so it must have been in the sump when it was put together at the factory

[kev edwards]

After lots of looking my conclusion is they have been in there since fettling in the original foundry, conditioned cut wire shot.

[Foxfix]

Interesting.
They could not have came from the petrol tank as would not get past the tap or float valves into the float bowls.
Also no way in for them through the intake side of the carb so I agree with you, must have been there from new !

[gray]

So do you intend to replace them in the correct float bowl as a mark of complete, factory - fresh originality? And if you sell the bike, document that its worth more cos of this rarely- seen factory accessory?