Best Way to Clean pilot Jet Without Removing?

[rustbuckett]

I have to remove my carbs anyway because one is leaking -- rubber bowl seal is hard and cracked, float needle won't seal.

While they're off, I'd like to clean out the one place I didn't get at last time: those air/idle mixture screws and their passages.

Anyone have any tricks for giving the air mixture screws a good internal bath, without having to pry out the caps and remove them? Special chemicals (like maybe paint brush cleaner) that'll dissolve any varnish without killing rubber or O-rings...?

Thanks. -Robert

[lordnor]

I just finished doing a pinesol soak of the whole carbs. I only removed the diaphragm up top and the main jet. This got everything really nice and clean and doesn't damage the rubber o-rings. I soaked them in a roughly 80/20 pinesol/water solution overnight and then rinsed them thoroughly and dried with my air compressor and sunlight. WEAR GLOVES, this stuff will make your hands dry out and crack and bleed, my one regret. Good luck

[rustbuckett]

Thanks, I might try that. Never would have thought of Pine Sol. Reminds me too much of cleaning the toilets back when I was in the service.

I boiled the carb bodies in a pot on the stove with a 50/50 mix of vinegar & water, and a little bit of "super Purple" degreaser/ckeaner. It looked like it worked pretty well but I can't see inside those capped-off areas. I'm used to completely disassembling carbs and soaking them in a gallon can of Berryman's Chem-Dip, then washing with hot soapy water.

But that stuff eats up nylon and rubber. I don't want to pull the plugged mixture screws if I don't have to. I've only pulled capped screws maybe twice (just on B&S or Tecumseh snowblower engines), and I was never able to get them re-set just right again; little oddities, like they didn't have a brass washer, and I had to put LocTite on the threads to hold them still. It just made me steer away from the whole idea of un-capping a sealed off screw set. I figure they capped it for a reason - to keep backyard bumpkins like me the heck OFF them...

[lordnor]

I took the caps off mine when I changed the air filter to pods. The caps are easy to pull (drill a small hole and yank out with bent nail) and nothing went wrong, I am able to adjust without incident.

[eaglerider]

The idle fuel/air mixture screws are pretty solid....haven't had them move....I would not worry about messin anything up by removing those plugs.

[chopperfreak2k1]

i didn't read so this may have been said, but i use an ultra sonic cleaner with good results and rarely take carbs apart.

[Rob]

Pull the plugs!

I thought I cleaned without takeing the screws out, then before putting them on changed my mind. Lots of crud gets built up around the spring and taper, dissimilar metals corroding each other! Only way is remove them , clean, blow through with air or solvent and reset them to spec. 1 3/4 turns out work fine on both of mine.

Worth the extra ten minutes

[Rob]

Those Plugs were put in to keep emmissions leagal till day of sale in 1980's

No way they are set for todays fuels and atmospheric conditions.

Galvanic action between metals will restrict the flow alone after a couple years never mind 20++