How to remove jets without buggering them up?

Whats the collective wisdom on this. Im stripping a set of CV carbs for cleaning. Im having problems with the pilot jets. I wanted to first turn them in and count the turns ( for refitting) then take them out for cleaning but they wont budge at all! Either way. Stuck solid.I dont want to damage anything.
Any suggestions?

Did you try heating up the body first?
Steve

I dont fancy that. Ive drained them, stripped them and cleaned the worst of the crud off them but theres still a very strong reek of fuel to them. On top of that,on the parts diagram,it looks like theres o-rings in there as well.

A heat gun or hair dryer might expand the outside enough for them to turn. That gunk is like glue.
Steve

Also you could soak some penetrating oil and let it soak for awhile.

Fill the space above the screw with penetrating oil and then heat the tower with a torch. Needless to say the carbs need to be stripped first. Key thing is to get a screwdriver that's a tight fit into the slot. Grind a larger screwdriver if you have to. If there is any slop what so ever you will destroy the screw.

A few days of good penetrant (Kroil or the homemade stuff) and a proper screwdriver would be my first choice. Heat will help, but I would be concerned about making a gooey mess out of the orings.

The O-ring needs to be replaced regardless. They are available. All the various O-rings need to be replaced regardless. Only exception are that sometimes the choke plunger O-rings are okay. The worst ones are always the ones on the fuel transfer tubes. Those O-rings routinely crumble when trying to take them off. When guys try to "clean the carbs" without unganging them I cringe.

Yes, of course they need to be replaced. My concern is what a big pain a bunch of melted ones would be.

This is a zero budget job. Nothings going to be replaced unless its actually broken (cringe away Ed). A strip down,a clean and slap them back in again.Thats the mission here. I bought a can of carb cleaner and I broke a throttle cable taking the carbs off so Im already in the red.
Im going with the penetrating oil to start with and see how that goes. I dug through a drawer and found a screwdriver which is a nice snug fit,so,Ill go with that after a few days soaking. Im also having the same problem with the float bowl drain screws,so theyre also in soak.
Ill give it a few days,then have at it. Ill let you know how it turns out. Thanks for the input.

I soaked mine in olive oil for s hour it worked great just to clean that oil out of there

Ozzyrocks69# wrote:

I soaked mine in olive oil for s hour it worked great just to clean that oil out of there

Olive oil would be better than penetrating oil.  The o-ring on the KZ flavor Mikuni BS CV carbs is on top of the screw, by the slot.  So any oil on top of the screw will sit on top of the O-ring.  Penetrating oil will damage the O-ring and make it swell.