TOPIC:

The carbs are still on the way, but I ordered the solid gasket to seal off the plunger chamber... Hopefully they get here at the same time.

So you just press fit some wire in the bowl nipples - interesting. I will look into that, I know some electrical wire coatings are gas tolerant and some are not.

Injected wrote: The carbs are still on the way, but I ordered the solid gasket to seal off the plunger chamber... Hopefully they get here at the same time.

So you just press fit some wire in the bowl nipples - interesting. I will look into that, I know some electrical wire coatings are gas tolerant and some are not.

Good luck with your carbs. I will likely leave the accelerator pump system disabled for the foreseeable future on mine.

It may be better to use rubber caps on the bowl nipples, versus the method I employed. The wire was on-hand at the time, so necessity proved itself to be the mother as usual. Not sure about the resistance of the wire coating to fuel, or if it matters in this case.

14 AWG according to my wire stripper:

Got the carbs a few weeks ago, slowly sorting them.

I got the #2 bowl where the fuel flows thru plugged up with a #4-40 flat head screw - Thanks for that tip.

I have the nipples on that bowl partially plugged with some 5/32" ball bearings, just sitting on the opening then covered with some rubber caps. The rest of the nipples I put rubber caps on those. I left the accelerator rod in place to sort of plug that hole but have the plunger removed and the rod pushed down so it does not touch the white plastic actuator cam.

I am having a terrible time trying to remove the float pins, I got #3 and #4 out OK by punching them thru with a stainless steel spoke from a bicycle. I made a dowel to support the float pin posts in between them and a block with a hole in it for the head side of the pin to support that post while punching out.

Having trouble getting #1 and #2 float pins out, trying to use the spoke to punch out #2 is causing the spoke to deflect taking the power out of it. Thinking I may have to heat the post that holds the head end, that is where the pin is oversized - A little leery to heat with a torch since the float is right there.

Once the pins are out I am going to put them on my mini lathe and file the head end down to the same diameter as the rest of the pin so they slide fit.

Currently the floats are set at 19mm, want them at 21mm.

I use a spring loaded center punch to pop the pins out. The float height is supposed to be set at 17mm.

Spring loaded center punch is an awesome tip!

Thank you! Mike

Mikuni states float height 17mm +/- 1mm.
DoctoRot is right.

I would forget about the clear-tube method, since the fuel level actually rises above the bowl tops with RS carbs. I tried adjusting the float tabs to get the level down on two sets of these carbs, but was unable to get anywhere close to the desirable 3mm below the bowl top level, even after bending tabs where they barely could engage the float needles correctly.
Never found a Mikuni reference to use that method with the RS carbs, so I just settled for 18-19mm.

You have to be extremely careful punching those pin ends. I've seen several RS carbs listed on ebay with broken posts, which I can only assume were caused by the use of excessive aggression trying to get a pin out.


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daveo wrote:
You have to be extremely careful punching those pin ends. I've seen several RS carbs listed on ebay with broken posts, which I can only assume were caused by the use of excessive aggression trying to get a pin out.

The main issue is the tight press fit on the head end, the head end of the pins is .003" oversize on the hole for about half the depth of the post. I am being very cautious in my attempts. Its harder to do on a full rack of carbs.

I tried a spring loaded center punch, no budge. The issue is the orientation of the head ends on #1 and 2, they are facing outwards so the extraction has to come from the center of the rack. Like I said before #3 and 4 got drifted out pretty easy with some support blocks I made. Being very careful to support properly.

Yeah, it would be a breeze if they were all off the rack.

Regardless of what the correct factory float height is I want to be able to easily take the floats off in the future without all this drama. If the designer was so paranoid of the float pin vibrating off they should have put a clip on the one end instead of this interference fit.

I am slowly working at it and trying not to get frustrated.

I just got done going thru exactly the same process on a set of RS36s that I’ve had sitting on an unused bike since about 1992. Long story short I broke two float posts off due to factory defects (which I didn’t discover until after the posts had broken). The original pins had actually buckled when pressed in at the factory. If you do break a post and don’t have access to a machine shop of your own there is a guy in Canada (not an advertiser here so I won’t mention by name) that specializes in fixing this problem. I had him do both repairs and they came out just fine. Another tip (couldn’t find it mentioned anywhere in this thread) is there is a fellow that just recently started selling rebuild kits for the RS carbs for about $160 which uses all OEM parts; one kit covers a complete set of carbs. At first glance it seems like a high price but is totally worth it simply because so many of the parts are hard or impossible to get elsewhere.

...and when you do get them out, it isn't necessarily necessary to drive them back in fully, since it only takes a little bit of friction to hold them in. There is little stress on them during use to loosen them up, if you think about it.

I removed just enough material behind each head by using a cordless drill with the pin pressed against the edge of a piece of 400 grit sandpaper as it spun. Took several attempts to fit each one to it's own post. Each head sets about 1/32" away from the post, and takes just a light tap to knock loose.



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Thanks all for the support and suggestions.

Once I get the other two out I am going to make sure the heads face in when reinstalling them. If I had to do this on the bike it would be way worse.

I will be sure to report back on my outcome.

My suggestion is to use .095” drill rod to make your own pins. McMaster-Carr 8890K132. I cut them long enough so that the inside walls of the float bowl hold them in place side-to-side. That way just a paper clip is all that is needed to remove them in the future. I’ve done this mod on several sets of BS34s as well (different diameter pin required).