Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

[thewooddogg]

Hey everyone,

I finished my carb rebuild this year and it's running great so far. Last year I had problems with lots of gas pouring out of carb while on the lake... bad bad bad. Anyhow, I knew nothing about carbs at that point, so I read up, bought a rebuild kit and went to town. Turns out that the four bolts on the fuel bowl were loose enough to unscrew by hand (that cant be good) and the little fuel screen bolt thingy on the fuel inlet was loose.

I'm assumming the engine vibrations just rattled them loose over time because we used the boat without problems 7 times before that "incident". When rebuilding, I torqued all the bolts to specification, and I plan to check the bolts before each outing now (paranoid because of last year). My question, can I safely use some sort of locktite on these bolts? The rebuild kit didn't call for any and I'd enjoy the extra peace of mind.

 

[Uraijit]

Re: Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

If you've torqued them properly, there should be no need to locktite them. They can actually be quite difficult to get out in the future, even without locktite, so I wouldn't recommend it.

It's likely that someone in the past failed to torque them, and they've worked themselves loose, as you suggested. Just check them a few times, until you're confident that they'll stay put. Then, just check them when you summerize it every season, along with checking everything else.

 

[Muqwump]

Re: Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

Do you have lock washers installed on the bolts?

 

[thewooddogg]

Re: Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

Uraijit - Thanks for the response!

Muqwump - The four long bolts on the fuel bowl don't have locknuts as far as I can tell (doubtful that there is room for them either.) They do have little washers/gaskets. The originals I pulled off were some form of paper.. the new ones that came with the rebuild kit were white plastic washers.

 

[Muqwump]

Re: Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

Good because if you had, it would leak bad.

 

[thewooddogg]

Re: Carb Rebuild and loose bolts

LOL! Funny Muqwump.