Stripped mixture screw.

[Guest]

The PO has stripped a mixture screw, and the head is completely rounded off.
Can the screw be removed, or will I need a carb body?

[matt1100]

Proper sized drill bit and extractor (EZ-out) plus some patience and it'll probably come out

[Steve]

I am going to presume you are talking about your GS.

Use a Dremel tool with a large cut-off wheel to cut a slot down the tower, cut a new slot in the screw, it will come right out.

When you are done, it will look like these two:



.

[MrFreeze60]

I had though about using a Dremel. I tried to turn the screw and it won't budge. I'm going to heat it after I cut the slot, and see if I can get it to turn.
I modified a screw driver to fit down into the other carbs for the mixture screws. It was too wide to fit in the holes, so I slowly ground the sides down till it fit, and it fits the heads of the screws nice and tight.
I tried drilling, and either my drill bits are dull, or the metal is extra hard, because my bits wouldn't touch it.
Thanks for the tips guys.

[JTGS850GL]

When I try to get those out I heat the living hell out of them before I even try. Strip down the carb completely leaving just the adjustment screw. If the slot is gone then Dremel the slot in like Steve said first. Clean out any metal from the exposed threads. Put in some PB blaster and use a propane torch to heat it up. Don't worry about damaging anything from the heat. I heat them up until the PB blaster disappears a couple times. As long as you're using a simple propane torch you wont melt anything but maybe the O-rings that you're going to replace anyway. I would NOT use an EZ-Out. If you break it off you're really screwed.

[gs550rebuildguy]

got mine out ended up at the doctors office

I twisted so hard I got tennis elbow for four weeks
I found the torx bit method works well
Bought a cobalt drill bit at ace hardware went slow let it cool often
It was 5/64ths and I used two 1/16 drills up to make a pilot hole
THen tapped in a #10 torx bit
MEASURE an existing screw for drilling depth and put tape on your drill bit to keep it from going all the way in to the needle area... like I did lol
I spent an hour drilling the needle n then easy out not fun
the torx bit idea is REALLY good

[JTGS850GL]

So you drill the hole and then knock in the #10 torx bit to bite into the hole? Interesting... May try that the next time I have an issue with one of these. So far I've had good luck just heating the P!$$ out of them first. They end up screwing right out like there's no resistance. If they start to get hard to turn again I simply get the ole trusty torch out and heat some more. I think the factory used some kind of thread sealant that the heat melts.

I've used the torch a lot lately. Found it's also the easiest way to remove fork seals. Burn them a little and they pop right out using a large screw driver as a leaver.

[MrFreeze60]

I ended up using my dremel to get it out, and then I heated it really good with my torch.
I would love to get my hands on the person who worked on these. NONE of them had the washers above the o-rings on the needles, and they all had 2 o-rings in them.
#1 carb mixture screw was only an 1/8th turn out, #2 was 1/2 put, #3 was 4 turns out, and #4 was 3.5 out. ALL of the butterflies were messed with and crooked, none of them was flush in the throats, and all of them were WAY out of sync.
I loosened the butterfly screws, straightened them out and made sure they sat flush in the throats and I bench syncd them.
I was able to find numbers on 2 of the carbs. 44520 C1Z8 and 45420 2TZ8.

[srg]

I would love to get my hands on the person who worked on these.

That's why we have the common theme of "never trust the PO" :-P

[tkent02]

I had a good PO once.

[gs550rebuildguy]

o ring spllit

I had a brand new o ring split on me
I was surprised but I "barely" seated it one time and poof it was bad

[MrFreeze60]

Quality control is crap anymore on stuff. I used to work at Sears rebuilding mowers and weedeaters. In the winter time I rebuilt bicycles. I ordered a crank sprocket for a 21 speed mtn bike because half the teeth were stripped. When the new sprocket arrived, it had almost 3/4 of the teeth stripped, it was worse than the original one.
Things are getting worse and worse. I guess that's how they make more money.

[MrFreeze60]

Well I have the carbs put together, and they will be going on the beast tomorrow, and I'm hoping to get her fired up. I went to Tacoma Screw and bought all of the o-rings for all 4 carbs and washers for the mixture screws for less than $2.50 I have the drain bolts soaking now, and I'm going to let them soak overnight and will put them on in the morning, get some fuel line and vacuum hose add some gas, and hope she don't burn to the ground.
I'm going to put the airbox on and hope she will run with just that so I can dial the carbs in somewhat. I have the entire airbox assembly, but no air filter.
Guess I will see.

[chef1366]

Please do not drill out these idle mixture screws.

[MrFreeze60]

I didn't drill the mixture screw. I was able to get it out with a dremel and a screwdriver I ground down to fit.
I put on the carbs, and got her to fire up today, and she will need some tuning and syncing. But she fires right up without the choke on so I guess I did something half right.
I find it weird I can fire my vulcan up with CV carbs with no filters or intake boots on it, and it will fire right up and I can ride it anywhere. I put on a set of Cobra Boulevard slip ons and K&N pod filters without touching the carbs and it runs fine. Actually runs better than stock on stock jetting.
Strange I tell ya.