Adhesive gunk on rubber part of carb slides

I am now cleaning and rebuilding my original 82 GPZ 750 carbs. It appears the previous owner used some kind of adhesive on the rubber portion of the carburetor slides. I do not know what was used. This is the stupidest thing I have seen someone do to carbs. I can only imagine they did this to aid in the seating of the rubber. I want to clean the slides(particular the rubber part) Is it ok to soak the complete slide in soapy water in order to disolve the adhesive agent? I just want to know if soaking in water will damage the slides in any way. Do you have a better solution? Thanks for any help.

Put them up to the sunlight and see if there are any hols or tears. I was looking at a site where you can get them cheap.
Steve
jbmindustries.com/

Man , thanks, Swest. you and many other guys here are always a wealth of information. That's why I always post my questions here. Someone has always already done what you want to try or ask. I am learning a lot while trying to make my scoot ship shape. I am on my second set of carb rebuilds. I never thought I would be doing such a thing, but between Youtube and this indispensable site I may even wind up tackling a full engine rebuild. Thanks for letting me ask so many questions here.

As to my question, will soaking in soapy water harm the carb slide? I may not have any holes in the rubber.

I don't see how it could as long as you don't boil them. I it were me, I'd wash them in diesel fuel.I would be worried about anything harsher than that.
Steve

Oh, if the rubber is getting hard, they won't work as well.
Steve

The rubber is still normal and pliant. It just the gunk around the edges. I don't know what they were trying to do.

Sealing the leaks around the edges? Put the tops on a flat surface like a sheet of glass and see if they are bent at the screw holes. If they are, they could leak there if they are made of steel. They can be flattened out. In the guy's video he shows how to apply sealant around the edges. I saved it on Google so I could order from him.
Steve

I would think it is dependent upon what was use by the PO as to if soaking it in soapy water will have any effect on removing it. It may well be some type of adhesive that water will not touch.

You say it is on the edge where it mates with the carb body correct? Maybe they could not get it to seat correctly and added something they thought would help with that. IMO not a good idea, But then we have all done (at least I know I have) things that were not correct.

A picture of what it looks like might provide a better solution.

Jrider wrote: I am now cleaning and rebuilding my original 82 GPZ 750 carbs. It appears the previous owner used some kind of adhesive on the rubber portion of the carburetor slides. I do not know what was used. This is the stupidest thing I have seen someone do to carbs. I can only imagine they did this to aid in the seating of the rubber. I want to clean the slides(particular the rubber part) Is it ok to soak the complete slide in soapy water in order to disolve the adhesive agent? I just want to know if soaking in water will damage the slides in any way. Do you have a better solution? Thanks for any help.

99.999% probability he had to seal some holes or slits in the rubbers. Maybe some kind of rubber glue or urethane glue.

Jrider wrote: As to my question, will soaking in soapy water harm the carb slide? I may not have any holes in the rubber.

Nope, can't hurt anything.

im using 4 new diaphragms from the JBM site steve listed, so far so good, easy install and arrived quick. its the same shipping cost if you get 1 or 50; so make sure you know how many u need before ordering, theyll arrive fassssst too....