1966 Bonneville Carburetors Leak Through Tickler Valve

I have a 1966 Triumph Bonneville T120 in the U.S. with twin Amal monobloc carburetors. Neither my service shop nor I can figure out why gas pours out of the tickler valves. We don't think that the floats have failed, but it seems that gas must be filling the float chamber and then leaking out the tickler valves on top of the lower part of the carbs. So far, I haven't been able to find parts in the U.S. for these carbs. Any thoughts on fixing the problem and/or finding carburetor overhaul kits? Thank you in advance. Kimpopper

 

Darkman: Thanks for your advice. I'm awaiting the arrival of a carburetor rebuild kit and will let you know after we check it out. The old needle valve seems to be fine, but maybe the needle seating in the banjo housing isn't letting the needle valve seat correctly.

 

Speedrattle: Sorry for my delay in replying.

No, my shop doesn't work on many older British machines. They did good work on my 2016 Bonneville a couple of years ago, though. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anyone in my area who really knows the old British bikes.

As to parts, yes, I was able to order Amal carburetor parts and an overhaul kit and front-fork parts from The Bonneville Shop. They are a great source for old Triumph parts. I had gotten parts from them before Covid and am really glad they survived.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Kimpopper

 

as

Speedrattle:

Sorry -- it's been several weeks. The shop completely rebuilt both carburetors with kits from thebonnevilleshop.com and the leaks stopped. I'm not sure if they figured out the underlying cause of the leaks. Everything looked good. They test drove it, though, and found a crack with a leak in the right carb. We finally found a shop who could weld aluminum and agreed to weld the crack. I'm hoping to get it back this week. If that doesn't work, I'm planning to replace the carb with a new or used one. Kimpopper

 

Thanks, Joe. One shop that welds aluminum wouldn't tackle this as he said it probably had pot metal in it and would not take a weld. Another shop has it now and hopefully will be able to. If not, thebonnevilleshop.com sells new and used ones. Kimpopper