XJ1100 Carb Question...Float Valve

I am just finishing up a rebuild of the carbs on a tired old XJ1100. Thanks to Len at ZJ4Ever and his great service, even the most obscure of parts are actually still available for this bike.

Among other parts, I have replaced all of the float needle seats and valves. On the reassembled #2 Carb I can't blow through the fuel intake hole either with the carb upright or upside down (upside down I would expect.). When I take the float bowel off, the needle valve works as it should when I blow through the fuel hole. When I put the float bowel back on..no work.

When I installed the new needle valve parts I had to adjust the float height to within 1mm of the 22.4mm according to the manual. This carb's floats are at 22.8 which is good enough for me and my cheap calipers.

The floats don't look any different than the others, so I assume they are correct.

Has anyone encountered this or have any ideas?

 

Do you have the old needle and seat? You probably already thought of this, but try to install the old parts back in. I had bought a china carb kit and first noticed the needle and seat bind a bit. I cleaned up the old parts and placed back in. I just today placed the original old main and pilot jets back in. The only positive thing is the xj650 carb rack can be pulled in about 3 minutes. I like the xj650, but the carbs are definitely the challenging part.

 

This is #2 bike, coming along from that freezing snowy night I brought her home in the back of my f150.

 

Thanks 2x1991xj650. I pulled the carb apart once more took the seat out to check the passage. Found nothing, reassembles and the carb works fine. Maybe the needle was sticking before. Hopefully that’s the end of it but time will tell!
Getting ready to go back in as soon as it’s warm enough in my garage to do a float bowel test…