Overlooked carb detail?

[Shadowman56]

Well, after 5 times removing and installing my bank of 4 carbs from my 1985 GL1200, I think I've solved my carb issues and the bike is running smooth and well. However, the 5th time was to perform something that I either missed, or was not included in any carb rebuild tutorial videos: adjusting / setting the float levels. My final inspection showed the float levels were all over the place! Specs call for 3/10ths of an inch from the resting float to the carb/bowl mating surface. My carbs were being starved of fuel. Set the floats and Shazam(?) It's running good! It's always the little things. So, before you close up those carbs, be sure to set your floats!. Go figure. Thanks. Gp

[Bike...and Dennis]

What angle did you have the carbs resting at?

[Shadowman56]

I didn't follow an angle. I turned the bank of carbs over, let the floats gently rest on the valve plungers and measured the distance / float height, perpendicular to the carb / bowl mating surface and adjusted the height by gently bending the float / needle valve tabs.

[Rambozo]

If you look around here there are a lot of topics covering float level. It is a big deal with these carbs. Honda has an angle spec as the weight of the float is too much to just invert the carbs, because of the spring plunger on the needles. So yeah, you want the float tab to contact the needle and seat it, but not compress that plunger much. Sounds like you figured that out.

[Shadowman56]

Yes, in a "not so technical" way, I think I solved things. I rode the bike 50 miles today and it rode great!
Smooth, no gaps in acceleration or performance. So, things are looking good! Thanks for the support. Gp