(This is a repeat post of about 10 minutes ago but I wanted it to be a new topic. Accidently hooked it to an old message about petcock repair I posted months ago. Please reply here if possible.)
In response to question a few months back regarding some petcock problems I was having, a member (Marc from Atlanta?) wrote:
. . . If your mileage is very poor, you may also have the emulsion tube elongation problem identified by Factory. Look through the carb top to make sure the opening is exactly round. If you have stock needles, they've been sawing the tubes to an eliptical shape.
I pulled the carbs last night because I'm having a lot of idle problems. First time for me into these carbs although previous owner had a professional installed stage 1 kit installed (I'm told) with airbox mod done. I'm going to clean them well and put a "kit" into them (which as best as I can tell is only going to be some o-rings and maybe needles/seats). Here's my questions:
1.) I can't find any info about the emulsion tube sawing caused by stock needles. Is there a recall on this? What can I do to check and/or fix if I've got problem? Have 15000 miles on bike.
2.) I'm not going to pull carb bodies off of their rack, but this means that I can't soak the carbs in a dip, correct? The rubber parts on the rack would get eaten by the dip. Do you guys who clean just buy a can of carb cleaner and spray into holes, etc. and then blow out with air? Can this method really dissolve the hard stuff? On the farm 20 years ago, we'd drop the carb body parts into a 5 gallon bucket of cleaner for at least a day. She'd come out sparkling.
3.) Haynes seems pretty straightforward so I think I'll be o.k. on the step by step. Was trying to find more detailed instructions on the internet from anyone who's done it before but no luck so far. Anybody have any sites for better than Hayne's instructions on dissembly and cleaning?
4.) Finally, I don't know yet if my pilot screw blanks were pulled out by prior owner. If they weren't, can I do a good cleaning without removing the pilot screws? If they were removed, should I take the screws out to clean the hole or leave them be? I assume if I were to remove them, I just need to put them back in the same number of turns as I took them out (seating them first and then backing them out to where they were set before I cleaned). Right?
Thanks,
Mark Privratsky
privrat@cpinternet.com
mprivratsky@lindquist.com
Minneapolis, MN
763-226-5565 (cell)