Stuck jets

How the everlovingFREAK do you get stuck jets unstuck? And why the heck can't these things be made from something other than whimpy *ss brass? I'm dying over here. So far, I have 3 jets that are stuck, 1 of which the slot was just about a total loss before I even looked at it.

 

HEAT is a great equalizer in the battle between metal and metal-owners.

Gently heat the surrounding body with some type of pintpoint torch. Be careful not to melt anything.

If you can also somehow cool the jet a bit.....ice chips, drip cold water through it.....that would help, too. To be safe, cool your jets (ha-ha) before you heat the surrounding carb body material.

Put a screwdriver into jet slot, rap gently a few times with a hammer to move the threads. Torquing----but not moving it at all----the jet in a clockwise direction (as if you were trying to tighten it) before trying to unscrew it can sometimes help to break the threads free too. Threaded fasteners are actually secured into their threaded bore via FASTENER STRETCH AND DEFORMATION; adding a tiny bit more deformation before attempting removal is a time-honored trick.

In fact, when a tightening (torque) value is specified for securing a fastener, what the engineer is REALLY saying is "stretch the bolt by so-and-so amount---which requires this much torque to achieve---in order to have a safe/secure fastening".

Since few people can or want to directly (or easily) measure fastener stretch, the torque value is a substitute way of measuring it. (side note: Pontiac SD-455 engines actually came with a valve cover decal that specified the proper amount of rod bolt elongation (stretch) as the proper method of determining how much to tighten the rod bolts onto their caps. Strange, huh?).

But it gets stranger: the original decal said:

CONNECTING ROD NUTS---IF DISASSEMBLED
Torque connecting rod nuts to to achieve .006-.008
bolt ELONGATION from static length measured over
conical depressions in both ends of bolt.

So, when people started reproducing these decals in the late 80's, one decal maker made a very nice copy, except their proofreader missed a spelling error, and the word "depressions" was spelled "despressions".

So the repro decals were always easy to spot from the real ones.

But I digress.

If all else fails, get really pissed and throw the carb body against the wall.

But usually the "heat treatment" solves the problem 99% of the time....

 

Well, actually, I had tried a bit of the ol' heat treatment and it wasn't working. There was just so little of the ledge left to apply torque to that nothing was going to make it move. So, I sacrificed 2 jets to the carb cleaning gods (or evil imps, I believe). I drilled them out and brought out the trust screw extractor. Now my only problem is finding someplace local hopefully to buy new jets at. Failing that, where is the best place online to find them???

 

Radioshack has a great little pinpoint torch for about 20 bucks. It runs on butane (lighter refill stuff, cheap). It works GREAT for soldering big joints, too. And it also works really well for shrinking heat shrink tubing. Way better than trying to do it with a lighter.

 

Here's a question, if I have a Hitachi carb, do I have to use hitachi jets? Or can get the same size jets for a different brand of carb?

 

Bump to top and plea for anyone that may have spare pilot and pilot air jets (#40 & #50, respectively) that wants to get rid of them.

 

I've got a spare set of carburetors. I'm using the pilot jets, but all the other jets are here. Where are the size 50 air jets, I can't seem to find them?

 

Here is where I got the 122 main jets I just put in my carbs.
http://www.crc2onlinecatalog.com/Index_Main_Frame.htm

 

Beardking, I had the same exact problem. I had a Main Jet that the PO had used JB weld to seal up the fact that he got it stuck about 75% into the jet needle. I scraped off the JB weld, ground off the jet, and extracted the threads. I used a tap and die set to clean the threads on the needles.

Now it was time to find new jets, but, 3 parts stores later ( in 2 states mind you ) and I'm told they just dont sell them any more... not even in japan.

So I took one of each of the good (and still removable) jets into the parts store to get them matched up. Mikuni sells jets of the same thread and size in 110's but didn't make anything smaller than 60's. I ended up using some mikuni 40's that have small heads. They fit fine on the carb housing and are still big enough to make a seal.

Oh and I think that the reason they make jets with softer metals is so they can flex and form to make that seal, otherwise you would need copper or rubber washers to seat them properly. Not sure if that's entirely true but it's what I've been told.

Hope this helps!

 

Todd, the size 50 jets that I have were on the pilot air jets on my carbs. I'm not 100% positive this is stock, but it's what my carbs came with. Any spare jets you have available, I'd be interested in. I'm only 2 carbs into this rack and this is the trouble I've had so far.

Seriously, why can't people buy the right tool for the right job?

 

I just looked at the air jets. I have 195 and 55 in where the slider assembly is and 36 jets on the face where there are the air box boot meet. My bike also came with size 43 pilot jets. I believe this is because it is a Canadian bike. If you pm me your address, I could probably slip them into an envelope and send the size 55 jets to you for next to nothing.