Learn from my carb cleaning mistake!

[Bonedigger]

All,

I recently posted about difficulties removing and replacing stuck carb slides on my CB77 after 15 years of storage. I've discovered the reason–--operator error.

I soaked the carb bodies in carb cleaner and the slides didn't budge. I started tapping the side of the carb with a small plastic mallet hoping to loosen things up. BIG MISTAKE. After I got the carbs and slides on the workbench a couple measurements told the story. I actually deformed the slide cavities, even with the slides in them, enough to keep the slides from going back in.

I know now how stupid I was so please don't pile on. I hope this will help someone else before they become another dumba%&.

The prognosis looks good for the carbs right now. I'll post when the rebuild is complete. Thanks all for your help.

Bonehead

[mike1969]

Don't feel bad,everyone makes mistakes.

I came across a quote by Will Rogers this afternoon that is fitting.

"Good judgment comes from experience and a lot of that comes from bad judgment"

[ricksd]

I really doubt if 'tapping the side of the carb with a small plastic mallet' would be enough to deform the carb body. Old castings 'season', and I'd bet the carb slide was holding the body in shape- when you got it out the body just relaxed and went oval. If that's as frustrated as you get when working on a rusted old pile of parts you have more patience than I do.
Rick

[Bonedigger]

LOL! I like to call it patience. My wife prefers the term procrastination. It could have just gone oval as you say but it's particularly tight and uneven where I was tapping on it. Could absolutely be a coincidence though. I'd prefer that to operator error.

Here she is. Garage find. Original owner threw it into the deal when I was buying his car back in the '80s. 6800 miles. Added straight bars, mid-rearset pegs from Wiggy's Honda. Used to run well. Crashed on my '88 Honda Hawk GT one day and promised the wife not to ride again (well, as often) till the kids grew up. They're grown, and this is the only bike I have left from my collection. As soon as she's running she will go too.