Step 11
There are two car clamps. And if someone’s messed with your bike previously (as with mine) the screws might not be on the same side. I had the screw of the front clamp on the left, and the other screw on the right side of the bike pushing a hole in the plastic chrome covered battery cover. (grrrrrrrr…)



Step12
Now, if you don’t mind spilling a little gasoline here and there, you don’t need to do the following step.
I myself get extremely nauseous of the smell of gasoline so I make sure not to spill any.
Hold a little bowl underneath the float bowl drain, and remove the screw.
It’s just a small amount of gas that pours out (2 or 3 ounces).
You might want to take a look in the little bowl you used, cause if there are some metal slivers or other junk in it you might not want to pour it with the rest.



Step 13
Now here comes the FUN!
Not really! I ran into some trouble here.
Clymers said to pull the carb back towards the rear of the bike and twist it out.
Well………..! I had about 1/8 inch of space. That sure didn’t help. I ended up scrunching the rubber thingy where the carb was attached, and tried it then, no luck.
After a bunch of wiggling I decided to take of the chromed plastic battery top cover, and loosen up the battery casing, hoping to gain a little more room. (of course I had to remove the tool box and battery first (no picture…I was too annoyed at the time being).
That helped! I was able to get the carb out!
LITTLE ADDENDUM, I discovered (having to take out out again) that it's a heck of a lot easier to take the carb out if the top is removed first (take out diaphragm too, so you don't accidentally damage it)

So this is what it looks like!



Step 14
Next remove the 4 screws on top of the carburetor, (those are pretty tight I take it Loctite was used to keep it that way), put them on the papered table and mark where they came from. Lift off top and remove gasket, put those on the paper too.



Step 15
If you look closely you’ll see that the diaphragm (utterly weird looking rubber thingy) has a little lip on it, gently peel of the rim and lift up gasket. It will still have the needle attached to it.


Step 16a
Remove pilot air jet (if you are not replacing it place on paper)



Step 16b
Now here is where I looked at the Clymer’s manual till I could see no more.
The carburetor they have does not have this next THING.
It looks like a jet but I don’t think it is. It has a big hole in it, not even tapered like a jet, so I have no clue about this one. The manual shows just a hole in the carburetor where this thing is. Still, I took it out and marked it on the paper.



Step 17
Turn carburetor upside down and remove the 4 screws the hold the float bowl on.
Same here, mark on the paper where they are from.



Step 18
Remove floater pivot pin. This thing was really suck on mine, and gently trying to pry it with a flathead screw driver didn’t work. I ended up using some WD-40, (that worked).
Definitely put this on paper and TAPE it down, you have no idea how easily this thing disappears!!
Next lift up the float and pin.



This is what they look like

The next thing I did was drop the carburetor in a tin with carburetor cleaner. (I bought Gunk because it came with a basket for the little things). When it comes to cleaning everything use what you prefer.
Do not use that stuff on the rubber parts!
I spend the next hour soaking different parts, washing them off and drying them. I used that computer air spray can to get the water out of the tight spots.

After everything is clean, reverse the process of putting it back together.

If you are replacing the pilot or main jets you can put the new ones in.
If you are doing a spacer mod, here is a picture of the little spacer




This is the little bugger that you are going to be sanding down to about 2/3 of the size.
Good luck!
I found some plastic washers in the hardware store that had the perfect thickness and diameter.

A couple of last hints:
Hint 1
When assembling the washer and needle thingy on the diaphragm, use a magnetic screwdriver. Make sure you put in the little scifi looking disc with the little bump facing DOWN! Otherwise you’ll end up like me, utterly frustrated and mad at yourself for not being able to line up all of the 4 holes (2 round holes and 2 half moon). I didn’t read the instructions too well!!

Hint 2
Put a bit of Loctite on the top screws of the carb (I can’t take credit for this, I think it was odlfeller or T-Mack who suggested it, but if I’m wrong, please let me know!)

Hint 3
Before you start bike for the first time, put tank on PRI and let float bowl fill up.
I actually let a little gas drain out of it to see if there was any air in it. (not sure if that was a smart thing to do!

Start her up and I hope she runs right away!


CHANGES I MIGHT MAKE:
I wasn’t sure if I could use dish soap on the diaphragm, and I wished I had, cause even after gently cleaning it with a paper towel, it still felt a little sticky. (I think that this might be the cause of my irregular gas flow).  

ADDENDUM:
The second time I took the carb off I ended up cleaning the diaphragm with dish soap, and it works so much better now, no more sticking.
I also went ahead and tried the spacer mod.
Went to ACE hardware and found some small plastic washers and tried them on for size.
Here’s a picture comparing the old and new one.


This is what it looks like on the needle



I must say that having done this the bike rides much stronger. Feels like I have way more torque!

My '96 doesn't have one either.

MotoBuddha wrote on 12/23/10 at 18:10:08:


For the record, my bike (see signature block) does have the nub.

I tried that too.  I finally resorted to using the Dremel to cut the pin in half, then worked it out by pushing it from the middle.

****Big thanks to Cavi Mike for restoring the picts****

Believe it or not, the pictures are still there. BikePics did some restructuring to their website so all of the url's are different but the number of each image is still the same. This is an image from her post that I used the new url in front of and here is the link to it. You can prolly just search her images to get the rest yourself but I'll go through her posts and try to get the images to show up.

http://www.bikepics.com/pictures/1049830/

Below is SavageWahine's post from 10/08/07 with the BikePics images fixed. I went through the trouble of fixing the URLs for myself and figured others might find it useful as well  -bobabot1

SavageWahine wrote on 10/09/07 at 10:32:46:

Step 19
An inside look!
I marked what each of the screws is, if you have difficulty reading the letters, click on the picture and it will open the photo online. If you click it again it will enlarge.



Remove the screw that holds on the plate, which in turn holds the valve. Pull the valve out. Mine really did not want to come out, it was stuck. I ended up taping the little bugger and used a pair of needle vise grips to finally get it out.
Remove pilot jet and main jet.



Here is a photo of the old and new (55) pilot jet.



Step 20
Remove the needle jet.
Well here is where I can join the Marx brothers! I thought that copper stick thing was the needle jet!! Let me tell you…it ain’t!
Then I thought, “No wonder I’ve been having trouble, there’s no needle jet!” Then I looked at Clymer’s again and read that you were supposed to push it out if it didn’t fall in your hand (yeah right!!!) I finally figured out where that sucker was hiding. (Can I use the word sucker?)
I could barely see where it was, so here’s a pic




If you put your finger on it on the inside you can follow the direction and see where it ends up on the outside. Use something soft to push it down (like the back of a marker) no metal! Catch it with your fingers so you don’t scratch it.
This is was the little bugger looks like:



Step 21
This next step is not in Clymer’s because they have the throttle cable clam on top of the carb. Mine is on the side where the choke is.
I could not remover the choke until I removed this first. If yours is the same as mine, remove the 2 bolts that hold it on. If by any chance the bottom screw is really snug, do not wiggle the thing! It actually has 2 groves that align with two bumps on the carburetor.
I put some of that liquid wrench on it.



Step 22
Remove choke.
No picture here cause I forgot. Also the photo in Clymer’s is good.

Step 23
(Picture 19 on page 191 in Clymer’s). Remove the 3 bolts on the side of the carburetor (careful, there is a spring underneath!!) and remove the transient enrichment valve cover. (Try and say that fast 5 times!!)
Just like you removed the diaphragm in the beginning, remove the little itty bitty diaphragm in here.
This is what you should have.



The last thing I did was take the first big diaphragm that was in the top part of the carb apart (you know the weird looking one).

If all went well you should have the same Carburetor parts on your table.