Stuck choke plungers on my 81 GS550E

[Vloukole]

Hi guys

All 4 of the plungers were stuck. I then took the carbs apart and started the cleaning process. They were dipped in carb cleaner and boiled in lemon juice.

One of the plungers came out. When I put it back and it sat for the weekend, it was stuck again.

Any ideas??

[JTGS850GL]

Do a better job at cleaning. There's obviously more gunk to remove. Dump the lemon juice. Clean in dip and them spray every passage with carb cleaner. I sonic clean after dipping but not everyone has a sonic cleaner.

[Nessism]

Did you soak the carbs with the plungers installed?

[Vloukole]

The carbs are pretty clean. No gunk to be seen. Here in RSA we do not have carb dip like in the USA etc. only fuel system cleaner wich is not as strong.

The plungers are stuck so they had to be dipped and boiled while still in the carb bodies.

[JTGS850GL]

Now that they're loose, dip the carbs again with the plungers out. Don't dip the plungers. Use a spray cleaner to get the plungers clean. Any quality degreaser should work if you can't get a proper carb cleaner.

[Vloukole]

The plungers are all stuck. Cant get them out

[JTGS850GL]

You definitely still have a contamination problem if they're too stuck to get them out. Might have melted some of the rubber from the plungers and now it's sticking to the walls. Try to rotate the plungers and then pull them out.

[Vloukole]

I did try to rotate them but they wont budge. They are really stuck. Feels like they are part of the carb bodies

[JTGS850GL]

dip them again and pull them out. Once out, dip the carb bodies all over again and then degrease the entire carb body and plungers. If you can't find carb cleaner then brake cleaner will work.

[Vloukole]

Ill dip them again.

[Nessism]

You might want to try a heat gun on the carbs to heat them up and hopefully break down the varnish holding the plunger in the carb body. This works great to remove stuck slides anyway.

[Vloukole]

Thanks. Will try the heat gun. Is there any chance that I can melt the carb?

[steveb922]

Theoretically yes, but in practice no. I've had the same problem, and used a propane gun for maybe thirty seconds at a time. It didn't free the plungers, but didn't harm the carb body. I drilled mine out eventually, but there is very little margin for error, especially as you get toward the far end.

[JTGS850GL]

Since he's had these out once I'm betting that there isn't a lot keeping them in. I'll bet a little heat or a quick redip will get them back out.

[Vloukole]

I dipped the carbs and used a heat gun. They wont budge. I tried pulling and twisting them with pliers. Nothing happens!