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Good evening,

A friend of mine is having the 200 hour inspection on his carburetors on his 912ULS.

The floats did not passed the test. He is already on his third set of floats.

It is my understanding that Rotax has come out with some new floats.

I spoke with Lockwood Aviation one or two weeks ago and they said that they are back- ordered all over the country.

I will call them tomorrow and get an update.

However I am reaching out to other members to see if they are hearing the same thing or perhaps if they have a source for replacement floats.

Thank you for your time.

Bob
  • Re: Carburetor Floats

    by » 7 years ago


    As a matter of curiosity, once floats have absorbed enough fuel to fail the test, can they be dried out and reused temporarily? I'm on my third set of floats as well (they're still good knock on wood) but both of the earlier sets were good for quite a number of hours before they failed. Would drying out restore some of that usefulness?

    Not trying to advocate anything dangerous, just wondering whether it might help get past this backorder period.

  • Re: Carburetor Floats

    by » 7 years ago


    @TOM: no - failed floats must be discarded, there is no process for "reviving" them!

  • Re: Carburetor Floats

    by » 7 years ago


    I have an older Rotax 912. I've owned it for 9+ years.I have put nearly 900 hours on it and ever had to replace floats. Do they often fail? If so why?

    www.heavenboundaviation.com Has the floats in stock.

  • Re: Carburetor Floats

    by » 7 years ago


    Floats rarely fail! But it was discovered that there was a 'bad batch' of floats manufactured about June 2012, and ROTAX put out a service bulletin in 2014 when it became apparent that some of these floats were failing.
    ( see http://www.rotax-owner.com/en/component/k2/item/34-912-914-float-inspection )

    see https://legacy.rotaxowner.com/si_tb_info/serviceb/sb-912-065ul-r3.pdf

    The float manufacturer "BING" then changed the float material formulation, but it was discovered that the newer formulation actually did not solve the problem. A subsequent service bulletin was released...

    https://legacy.rotaxowner.com/si_tb_info/serviceb/sb-912-067-r1.pdf

    The float manufacturer has redesigned the floats and there is a new version out now - see http://www.rotax-owner.com/en/component/k2/item/48-2016-floats

    The failing floats were only ever a small percentage of the total BING manufacturing output, but ROTAX implemented a strict testing protocol, just to be on the safe side.

  • Re: Carburetor Floats

    by » 7 years ago


    What symptoms are you guys experiencing when the floats fail? I fly a Aeroprakt A-22 with 912 and I'm getting vibration and sputtering on climb out. It's happened 3 times in a row. We checked the wt. at annual and the floats were all in specs. I can't duplicate the problem on the ground, only in a climb. Carbs are in sync, no water in fuel, fuel filter clean, spark plugs are normal.

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