Topic: CL350 seized carbs

[flankspeed]

I'm helping a friend get his early 70's (can't remember if it's 70 or 71) cl350 running and have hit a wall on the carbs.  I went to pull the diaphragm assembly as indicated in the manual and it won't move, completely stuck.  Tried the other one, same thing. The bike was last registered in 76 so I shouldn't be too surprised I guess, but does anyone know any tricks for getting stuck slides out?  Normally I'd just throw the whole carb into a bowl of carb cleaner and let it soak, but I'm worried that it may rot the diaphragm and I've heard they are pretty expensive.

Cheers

[tbpmusic]

Carb cleaner (not the spray  can/acetone stuff, but the dip-tank type) will completely dissolve your diaphragms.
Sadly, they (the diaphragms) are integral with the slides - while the entire slide/diaphragm units are still available (I think), they're very expensive.
Even finding a good used pair of carbs will be expensive.

Everyone has their own opinion on what will un-sieze things, I'm sure lots of folks will chime in here.

I'd probably start with a good long exposure to PB Blaster - but it seems to work better on steel than on aluminum. Some dilute Milk Stone Remover might work, carefully applied.

Guys

[AHuff]

Look like these?










If so, remove the top cap, remove the spring, then you can release the rubber diaphragm and fold it to the up position. Then you should be able to stick your finger in the hole and carefully break the slide loose.

[flankspeed]

tbpmusic... that's what I thought, thanx for the confirmation.  Maybe a bit of Marvel or spray penetrating oil squirted in there?

AHuff, I've already done all of that to no avail. They are really stuck.

Thanks, keep it coming...

[AHuff]

You could try holding the carb upside down and spraying a bit of cleaner onto the exposed slide, maybe it would creep around the cylinder loosing up some of the gunk. That or remove the cap and spring and try putting some pressure on the bottom of the slide after removing the butterfly. Just make sure the rubber diaphragm is already disconnected incase it breaks free, so you don't tear the rubber after all that work.

[flankspeed]

I've tried that too.  I  think my next step will be to build some kind of frame for the carbs to sit on in an upright position immersed about halfway in some carb cleaner.  That way the diaphragms will stay out of the liquid but the rest can soak.

[AHuff]

Man thats rough. Mine were pretty gummed and it took a good bit of scrubbing to get the slides back operating smoothly.

[tbpmusic]

Just as an afterthought, you might try brake fluid - that stuff tears up most anything it touches, and probably won't affect the diaphragms.

bill

[low-side]

Brake fluid will eat the diaphrams too. 

[flankspeed]

I'm guessing just about everything will eat the diaphragms.  I'll post back when I free em.

Thanks for all the help

[scunny]

immerse the carb in boiling water, holding it by the diaphram, the alloy of the carb will hopefully expand enough to drop of. I have had to do this myself and it worked a peach

[flankspeed]

Interesting idea scunny, I'll try that first.

[flankspeed]

Ended up getting them loose with lots of spray carb cleaner and "gentle persuasion", repeat, repeat, repeat..  Now I have bigger problems as I've snapped the shaft that controlls the butterfly on one of them (did I mention these carbs are frozen up all over?), arrgh.  Luckily a guy I works with has some cv carbs from a cb360 that he said he'd donate to the cause, hopefully they are the same.

Thanks for all the idea guys.