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Drain the tank and undo the large nut on the bottom of the left tank. The shut off rod goes down through the bottom hole once you remove the **** and lower nut (fitting). The fitting is the seat, the rod is the needle. See if the tip is steel, viton or missing all together.
The Linkert is easy to rebuild and they work well, I personally would run the Linkert.
Look after the shutoff first and then see if the carb needs rebuilding.
Here is the shutoff from my 48 EL. The original ones are steel, repop have a viton tip that can come off. I had one come off after the first time I used it. My 48 shutoff was leaking and filling the carb up then leaking down onto the engine. Rather than go repop I refinished the tip and now it seals perfectly.
Linkert for sure. Yours may need a rebuild, they get old and wonky. Many parts can get worn beyond service causing all sorts of leaks and other BS. What are your current symptoms? Leaking fuel usually means the float is set too high. Easy enough to drop the float bowl, check condition of gasket and float level. There is also a copper washer at the bottom of the bowl that can leak if loose.
I have the shut off valve from Carl's and it seals perfectly, for years. I can take the tank off with fuel in it, put it on the bench for the winter and not a drop.
Update on leaking fuel issue: First tank shutoff in deed works as it should.
Now carb issue......Took it off tonite and it looks like a very recent rebuild. No crud in the bowl. Float needle is steel and new! It looked like the float was set high.
But to all you carb veterans, guess what I did? I broke the rubber ducky float. Grrrrrrrrr. Put in an order for that and a gasket set from 45 Restorations.
I have never been able to get the gas shut off valve out of my 45 tank. Rusted in there but solid. Rubber ducky float, new needle and new seat fixed the drips for me. I thought about putting an inline gas tap in there but no need now.
The other thing that wears on those old carbs is the throttle plate (butterfly) and its spindle. Symptom is problems getting it to slow idle well.
I would not go with a Mikuni if you have a halfway usable Linkert. They are eminently rebuildable and the parts are all available from the sources already posted. Just takes a bit of time and effort to get them back to working like new. They are good old fashioned technology that can be fixed by the average klutz (like me).
On the carb double check everything. I had one on a panhead and the butterfly plate was in backwards and make sure the number on the plate is correct for that model carb. I had a problem with a new needle where it would make the float bind so I reused an old needle and that fixed the bind. Upper throttle bushing wears out. Verify the venturi is the correct one, there are two sizes for that model of carb depending on engine size, that carb is used on the 74 and then the 80 flatheads with modifications, the latter having an L stamped on the boss.
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WLA carb
