Carb Reduced

Today, for the very first time in my life, I almost felt like a mechanic. I removed the carburetor from the bike. Once I read through the manual, it was rather straight-forward. Slip off some hoses. Remove some side plates that fixed the motor to the frame. Remove some bolts holding the carbs to the motor. Then slide it out and remove the throttle and choke cables.

Only two small hitches for me. The first was not having the right sized wrench to take the bolts that attached the carbs to the motor. Actually, I had socket wrenches that would fit, but the space wouldn’t allow for it. I had to take a ride over to my father-in-law to find the right size. The second was that one of the bolts was slightly stripped. In taking it off, I stripped its head even worse. I needed to get vice grips on it to get it moving. It came out simply once it started moving.

I will need to replace the bolt, however.

Now, I don’t really know what a carburetor should look like, but this one looked very clean inside. The parts I could see were shiny. I suspect something is sticking, however, as some of the parts were hard to move. Also, what seemed like a lot of gasoline poured out of it. The carburetor will be heading over to my father-in-law’s tonight. He will do most of the work, with me looking over his shoulder.

I assumed there was something like a ‘carb cleaning kit’ with cleaner and some of the normal wear parts that would need replacing. Nope. I do need to by carb cleaner, though.

Laying on my back in the garage, trying to reach my big mitts into some cramped portion of the bike in order to loosen bolts, I finally had a true appreciation for why people like working on vehicles. It was a great feeling.