Now for the carbs themselves. This is mostly a log of before pictures. Once I scratch up the cash to buy the gasket kits, I'll clean them up nice and put them back together.
Because the #4 carb was gushing gas when I started it, I pulled that bowl first just to take a look.
It's a little sticky. Here's pushed all the way up.
Allowed to fall on its own.
How far down it goes if I pull it gently.
Inside the bowl.
It's kind of hard to tell, but there's a little bt of gunk hanging down from above the float. Might have something to do with the float sticking and causing it to piss gas all over.
There is no way I'm even going to try to rejuvenate these O-ring gaskets. They are flat as a 2x4 in the grooves.
I tried to pull the gasket out without damaging it... no dice. It was stuck in there good.
The #3 bowl.
The carbs have had gas in them for about a week now. I took a flat screwdriver and *gently* scraped it across the bottom of the bowl to see how attached the gunk is. Survey says... not very!
An upskirt shot of the #3 carb float.
I noticed something while looking over the unit as a whole. On the #4 butterfly, you can see where someone scratched the words "TOP" and "OUT." I take this as evidence the carbs have been torn down before.
I also noticed the #3 and 4 bowls had "3 4" stamped on the bottoms. The #2 bowl, with the accelerator pump, had a "2" stamped into it, and the #1 bowl had a "1." Thanks for the hint, Honda!
A look at the Custom's rack from above. It needs to be cleaned in general.
This is where I'll be doing the rebuild. I took a piece of plywood and stapled a couple sheets of heavy poster paper to it. The Standard's carbs are at the back of the bench. By doing the rebuild on paper, I'll be able to see small parts when I drop them, and I'll be able to make notes or draw outlines if necessary. One of the advantages to being a teacher is I have stuff like this just lying around.
I replaced the clutch lever and cable because the bike has been down, obviously on its left side. The cable itself is fine, but the perch and the clutch cable adjuster took a beating. I decided to try to salvage the cable by removing the adjuster. I had to (carefully) tear it off using pliers, a hammer, and a couple of flat screwdrivers. This is the end result.
Another weird thing... when I bought the Custom, one of the reasons it was billed as a "parts bike" was because the return throttle cable was seized. I replaced it, and threw the junk one in the trash. When I salvaged the clutch cable, out of morbid curiosity I drug out the stuck throttle cable... and it moves! It's fine, it seems! I don't plan on reusing it, but I think I'll hang on to it as a spare, in case I need it. I could also use it as a reference for when I chop the Standard.
Anyways, hopefully I'll have the gaskets next week, and I can document very closely the teardown and rebuild of these PD50 carbs.
