Arrrgh, that sinking feeling! Solex floats...

[Ron LaDow]

Couldn't they be made of stamped, soldered brass for an easier, cheaper product?

Not sure brass, including the (start-up) stamping dies and the soldering would be a lot cheaper than the plastic part, and you still have that 9:1 ratio to deal with. That $50 sounds like about the best deal you're going to get.

[Don Gale]

There is a brass version and well priced at the same cost as the plastic one.
http://www.ricambicarburatori.com/conte ... R5521.html

Good to know! Just ordered a pair just in case. I will likely put the 912 motor in my 58 coupe one day. I vaguely remember the floats in my Solexes on my 1968 912 motor being brass. I haven't had them apart since 1979 but I'm sure I would remember if they were plastic.

[Vic Skirmants]

There is a brass version and well priced at the same cost as the plastic one.
http://www.ricambicarburatori.com/conte ... R5521.html

Good to know! Just ordered a pair just in case. I will likely put the 912 motor in my 58 coupe one day. I vaguely remember the floats in my Solexes on my 1968 912 motor being brass. I haven't had them apart since 1979 but I'm sure I would remember if they were plastic.

Not hardly, that the floats in a 1969 Solex were brass.

[Dick Weiss]

David,

With all my 60 + of 356 work w/Solex 40 P II carbs , I've never seen the brass floats noted in the article you emailed, and especially, I disagree w/the early original
912s having them and the note of the plastic floats came later! There were 2-piece floats existing on some single throat Solexs, but I haven't seen any for many years.
I don't have any problem w/the plastic Solex floats--even after I repaired a few.

Dick (Coming to our Bull Session next month?)

[Alan Hall]

Like the link says the brass floats were used on the original 40-PII carbs, these were the 4-bolt, sand cast, early spyder and Carrera carbs. All of the 40-PII-4 cabs used plastic floats, the original sand cast 40-PII-4 used on carreras used a conical shaped plastic float on a long brass arm and the die csat 40-PII-4 used the plastic float we are all familiar with. Don't know if the very early floats can be used in the later carbs.

[Martin Benade]

Regardless of its history, the brass replacement one would function just fine after resetting the level, correct?

[David Jones]

I would imagine the only reason that the brass was replaced with plastic was on a cost basis and at the time the plastic would withstand being soaked forever in the gasoline formulation of that time. Later gasolines have a much higher proportion of solvents included in the recipe such as toluene which is present in higher proportions in premium gasoline than in regular. Have the failures been more prevalent in cars using premium than regular I wonder?

[Paul Lima]

I'm pretty sure the brass float will not work in the die cast bodies.

[Jim Kaufmann]

Need to warn everyone in the club any "NEW' 40 PII plastic floats you see on the web (any seller) all come from the guy in Italy. Every one will FAIL don't waste your money. I've wasted plenty already with floats he's supplied. Testing of repaired ones has also failed. 356 Carb Rescue has reached a critical shortage of usable 40 PII floats, we need Porsche to step up and manufacture these for the 356/912 community. You can reach out to Porsche Classic and put in a request for Solex 40 PII-4 floats, if they get enough requests they will consider producing them. Heard this recently when visiting PCNA headquarters in Atlanta, Ga.
At present, only way I get floats I can trust for our restorations is to buy used carbs and hope floats are still good.
The brass ones being offered will fit the short Sand Cast type 40 PII as used on 550's and early Carreras. Not the die-cast carbs used on production 356's.

Jim Kaufmann
356 Carburetor Rescue

[David Jones]

Thanks for the clarification Jim. We all need to step up to the plate now and let Porsche North America know there is a need.

[Mike Wilson]

The problem is that PCNA isn't a manufacturer. They would contract with someone to make the floats as they do with all the parts. Perhaps if more stringent quality control measures were in place, we'd get better floats. It would seem that the guy in Italy would be hammering his supplier for a better product after so many failures.

[Jim Kaufmann]

After all the dealings I've had with him, pretty sure he doesn't care that his product is bad, he knows what he's selling. Nor the fact that cars are getting stranded or worse catching fire due to what he's selling. He will keep moving them out till he recovers his investment plus. I've seen many parts that are not just made right by this vendor over the years. These days I'll just order one or two pieces to test if the part will actually work before I purchase any quantity. Many of his parts work just fine, floats are not one of them.

Mike---Yes, Porsche is not the manufacturer of such items, do believe they would be more concerned with the quality of the product the would be selling. They would also be able to carry the cost related to the manufacture and be the most central distributor to the world market. Cost might be higher from them, but we'll have something that will be really reliable, that's what's going to keep our 356's on the road.

[Jim Kaufmann]

One other thing. You need to go to the Porsche Classic section in PCNA. There should be a form to order parts in that section, fill it out and send it off. I haven't checked this out since my return for the trip, to many carbs arrived while away, trying to get everyone's order moving through our restoration process

[Ron LaDow]

One other thing. You need to go to the Porsche Classic section in PCNA. There should be a form to order parts in that section, fill it out and send it off. I haven't checked this out since my return for the trip, to many carbs arrived while away, trying to get everyone's order moving through our restoration process

Jim, maybe P-C is not the way to go here; we might well end up with the same crappy parts with a better return policy. Regardless, the $50 price is what it costs to get something you send back, so the market price for a good part is yet to be established but we know it is higher than that.
How about getting some suppliers interested by telling the lot of us how many you use on a semi-annual basis; it might well get attention from those of us interested in selling parts to the Illuminati.
Added by edit: Looking at the plastic floats from 'the guy in Italy', the joined seam looks to be high enough that it would always remain above fuel in the bowl, so a failure of the joint should never cause a problem. Do these floats fail by leakage through the material? Are they made of a material which is porous or subject to being dissolved by current fuel chem?
'Nother edit: Jim, you did what Cliff did on the steering coupler; time to do sums and drawings for quotes, but the demand numbers sure would help.

[John Hearn]

Jim
Good idea lets make our wishes known to Porsche.
Here is the link:
https://contact.porsche.com/uk/accessor ... ilability/
Could someboby provide a part number?
I have registered my request for a carburator float for a 356 SC for a Sloex 40P11-4 carburator.
KTF
John