Oliver S77 w/ Zenith flooding

Hi,

My dads 54-ish Oliver Super 77 I6. The carb is a Zenith 12522 replacement. The tractor has been in regular use discing riding arenas and whatnot for the last 15 years. Was going to use it to level my lot and it ran well for about 3 hours then started flooding. Thought it was dirty needle and seat and put a paper filter and new line from the filter to carb and tried cleaning up the needle when the rubber tip popped off so I bought a kit.

It doesn"t run/drip/err just sitting w/ the fuel on. If you try to start it it will spit and sputter then die and fuel starts dripping out the drain under the choke plate and keeps dripping till the fuel is shut off. The fuel seems to be coming out of the main nozzle but might be coming out of the well vent jet.

All gallerys squeaky clean. I"ve put a new needle/seat, new gasket on the main nozzle, made sure the main jet was tight. The kit I got didn"t come with a gasket that fit the main jet. Adjusted main needle per specs at 2 turns out. The bowl will hold fuel and not leak. I put a glass under it, turned the fuel on, and it fills up to about 3/4" from the top then stops. The floats are only riding about 1/8" up in the gas. I tried setting the floats at 1 5/32 with the float bottom level w/ the mounting surface. That didn"t fix it so I raised them "a bit" but then realized the float bottoms weren"t level. Not sure how important that is.

I rebuilt a Carter Thermoquad on a IHC Scout a few weeks ago and it runs like a top so I"m very, uh, frustrated, that I can"t get about the simplest carb in the world working.

Any thoughts? Seems like the side clearance between the floats and bowl is tight. Floats hanging in the bowl? I thought I"d try setting the floats at the level they are now but even w/ the mounting surface.

Thanks in advance!
Rusty

Did you check the float itself to see if it has developed a leak and allowed gas to get inside the float itself. once that happens obviously you will not be able to set it properly and get good inlet needle seal, floats can rub the body if care is not taken tho keep them parallel and you should stay with the specified float height or spillage over the discharge jet may occour.These are not rocket science as you know and you have worked on more complex so you will get it. mEl

I don't hear fuel sloshing in the float and no bubbles when submerged. Thanks for the vote of confidence!

Anyone know the correct float height? The kit I got has the float levels listed for series 61, 62, 67, 68, 161, 267, 63, 63m, 263m but I have no idea what series a 12522 and there're no numbers stamped on the body that match any of these.

Found this and thought I'd post it for posterity.

12522, 68JU8, 68JU8 means Series 68

http://clubs.hemmings.com/CLUBSITES/DURANT/Tech/ZENITHcarinfo.htm

So I guess a float height of 1 5/32" is correct.

I got it just right and it still flooded, so I got drastic the other way and set it so it should just barely be getting any gas and it's still flooding.

cripes.

Anyone wanna trade two running scouts and a lost cause Oliver for a running Farmall?

Turn the carb upsidedown to find the series number on the bottem of the bowl. Check to see if you air cleaner isn't plugged.

Finally got it. Turned out 2 turns on the main jet too much.

Also was fighting several problems. It would randomly die after 30 seconds or 30 minutes and not start for a while. I couldn't figure that one out so I reverted to "random = electrical" and "If you can't figure out what's wrong, then fix what you know isn't right.".

Replaced the old cracked wires for coil and distributer and bypassed the ammeter that hasn't worked in 15 years by removing the wires, cleaning 'em up and bolting them together.

The 54 year old tractor fires right up. Engine nocks like no tomorrow and runs w/ only 5 lbs of oil pressure and fouls plugs pretty regularly but it ran all day Saturday and got my lot 1/2 way to level with just a little 4 ft blade.