jimmy5090
XS650 Addict
my pilot jets will not come out and the heads are stripped. should i drill them out and replace with new ones? any suggestions would be great. just about ready to replace the carbs with the pwk carbs from mikes
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pilot jet heads stripped
- Thread starter jimmy5090
- Start date
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- Tags
- carburetors
Noooooooooo not that! Anything but that.... The pilot jets are kinda down in there but should be removable with care even now. drilling is pretty last resort, BS34s right?
I'll have to go look before suggesting any removal ideas.
I'll have to go look before suggesting any removal ideas.
ramairgtz
XS650 Addict
I had a pilot jet start to strip out on one of my bs34's so I found the best fitting little flat head screwdriver I had and tapped it with a hammer a few times to seat it in there real good then slowly turned it while pushing in and it came out.
OK here's a close up.
I would strongly suggest getting a set of LH drills they usually come with easy outs. Most automotive stores stock a set they aren't that expensive about $10 or 15 on line You might be able to just buy a drill bit or two. I think the drills not the easyouts are your best chance. Hit the jets with rust buster, maybe a good heat soak with a heat gun and then carb spray for a rapid cool off a time or two. grab a small drill bit just bigger than the hole in the jet. 3/64 or 3/32 look about right. do not use a drill to turn the bit, a vice grips would be my choice or a tiny tap handle. Get the carb body clamped in a vice somehow because you are going to have to be steady. Worse than a stuck jet is a stuck jet with a broken drill in it. Remember turn LH, hopefully you will kind of push in and twist left trying to get the drill bit to stick in the brass so your twist will start the jet turning. Notice how the threads are right at the base of the slot an easy out will tend to expand the jet and expand the threads making things worse. easy does it. to stop is better than breaking something worse, best of luck let us know how it goes.
I would strongly suggest getting a set of LH drills they usually come with easy outs. Most automotive stores stock a set they aren't that expensive about $10 or 15 on line You might be able to just buy a drill bit or two. I think the drills not the easyouts are your best chance. Hit the jets with rust buster, maybe a good heat soak with a heat gun and then carb spray for a rapid cool off a time or two. grab a small drill bit just bigger than the hole in the jet. 3/64 or 3/32 look about right. do not use a drill to turn the bit, a vice grips would be my choice or a tiny tap handle. Get the carb body clamped in a vice somehow because you are going to have to be steady. Worse than a stuck jet is a stuck jet with a broken drill in it. Remember turn LH, hopefully you will kind of push in and twist left trying to get the drill bit to stick in the brass so your twist will start the jet turning. Notice how the threads are right at the base of the slot an easy out will tend to expand the jet and expand the threads making things worse. easy does it. to stop is better than breaking something worse, best of luck let us know how it goes.
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jimmy5090
XS650 Addict
thanks for your help guys. I will give it a go tomorrow evening.
section8joe
XS650 Addict
my cousin had a virago and he couldn't get his pilot out to save his life. He want to a jeweler and got some nitric acid. It will eat the brass screw and won't harm the carb. Not sure if anyone else used nitric acid before but it worked fine for him.
bloodthirstysystem
XS650 Addict
i have the same problem with a set of carbs.. both of them. fucking sucks. had a good fitting screw driver and put so much force on that thing then it stripped.
Nah nah boo boo. I think if the screwdriver stripped it, it's stuck enough to break off a drill bit. I would use an easy out. It might expand the threads a little but not as much as it would pull it outward when it finally seats against the opposite end. But I would use the smallest easyout that would fit. Something else to try is dry ice. Pack a piece in the hole against the jet a few times and let it temperature cycle. Can't hurt. Might break some crud loose, then pound the screwdriver in a bit and try it again.
bdholsin
XS Enthusiast
Just had a thought...maybe the PO was an absolute genius and used loctite. Try a little heat with a screwdriver and see what that gets you. The heat will soften the loctite (if it is indeed there). Don't torque too much but maybe it's worth a try. POs are notorious for doing dumb shit to a perfectly helpless bike.
bloodthirstysystem
XS650 Addict
or try soldering something to jet even..
I broke a carb body with an easyout in an idle mixture screw, just a warning. I hear what you are saying XJWMX One good thing is that the pilot jets are not as exposed to the weather as idle mixture screws so the threads aren't usually as badly corroded. If by hand doesn't work drilling with a LH bit is better than easy outs because the bit won't try to expand the jet making the threads even tighter. One of my favorite tools is a pole barn nail ground to the shape I need. They are very hard tough steel. I have ground one to a screw driver shape, ground a hook shaped cutter on one end of that and used it to deepen the screw driver slot in the jet slicing off shavings of brass to deepen the slot. What ever method he picks having the carb body well clamped and immobile will help things go a lot better.
bluebikerblan
Geezer
.......Avoiding Same........
Mikuni CV Carb Tools (See 'Carb Guide' Also)
Some of you perhaps may have purchased the Mikuni Carburetor tool kit that Sudco, Sirius and others sell. In that kit are precisely correct sized driver tools for both metric JIS crosspoint screws and JIS slotted screws of our OEM Mikuni CV Carburetors.
Our OEM carbs are made to JIS standards so tools manufactured to that standard fit them correctly.
slotted drivers in the kit Mikuni offers are only two sizes:
A. Metric JIS #4 (width 4mm x tip thickness 0.6mm) B. Metric JIS #6 (width 6mm x tip thickness 0.85mm) These two sizes are all that's needed to fit all Mikuni CV jets correctly. (I understand that a #6.5 and a # 8 also have utility on some Mikuni Carburetors.) Note that no part of the shaft or driver is wider than the tip or "spade shaped" as are many US screwdrivers.
"US Phillips type" A JIS #2 Crosspoint
Hex Sockets: 6mm & 9mm Hex Wrenchs: 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17 mm Hex
Same old saw....Right tool right job! Back to the recovery from the otherwise tips.
I have sourced all these screwwdrivers from Vessel Tools(and their neighboring sizes and find them to also be excellent whether of 1/4" hex drive screwdriver bit variety or of various handled convention, ratchet or impact screwdrivers. Blue
Mikuni CV Carb Tools (See 'Carb Guide' Also)
Some of you perhaps may have purchased the Mikuni Carburetor tool kit that Sudco, Sirius and others sell. In that kit are precisely correct sized driver tools for both metric JIS crosspoint screws and JIS slotted screws of our OEM Mikuni CV Carburetors.
Our OEM carbs are made to JIS standards so tools manufactured to that standard fit them correctly.
slotted drivers in the kit Mikuni offers are only two sizes:
A. Metric JIS #4 (width 4mm x tip thickness 0.6mm) B. Metric JIS #6 (width 6mm x tip thickness 0.85mm) These two sizes are all that's needed to fit all Mikuni CV jets correctly. (I understand that a #6.5 and a # 8 also have utility on some Mikuni Carburetors.) Note that no part of the shaft or driver is wider than the tip or "spade shaped" as are many US screwdrivers.
"US Phillips type" A JIS #2 Crosspoint
Hex Sockets: 6mm & 9mm Hex Wrenchs: 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 17 mm Hex
Same old saw....Right tool right job! Back to the recovery from the otherwise tips.
I have sourced all these screwwdrivers from Vessel Tools(and their neighboring sizes and find them to also be excellent whether of 1/4" hex drive screwdriver bit variety or of various handled convention, ratchet or impact screwdrivers. Blue
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jimmy5090
XS650 Addict
blue correct tool is right. I soaked the jets in pb overnight and took a fat screwdriver and ground it down to the perfect size and they came right out. as far as the mix screw is there some reason im not seeing it or am i just blind?
Q Tip
mad bomber
The jets are brass; try sharpening a small screwdriver on a grinding wheel to a knife's edge, tap it into the jet with a small hammer, let it cut into/upset in the jet. Grip the shank of the driver with vise grips as close to the jet as you can get, wiggle the vise grips back and forth slightly trying to get it to move one way or the other. When you get some movement going ease it on out.
Idle mixture screws are front of the carb sticking straight up. You can't see them because there is an aluminum plug in the holes, usually the plug needs to be drilled out. VERY carefully so the drill doesn't drop down and fuggle the head of the mixture screw when it breaks through the bottom of the plug.
On second thought there's so much metal there to carry heat away that it woudn't get very hot. You could get a torch style butane lighter and direct it down there. They aren't as easy to find as they were a few years ago though. Make sure you're wearing your asbestos suit in case some residual gas goes up.
jimmy5090
XS650 Addict
reading the carb guide 3 more times
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sseres
XS650 Junkie
revisiting an old thread. If the pilot screws are still covered by the plug they stuck in there to keep our grubby hands off it, do I HAVE to get them out if I'm rebuilding (but not rejetting) a set of B34s? Or am I missing an important step here. I'm totally afraid of screwing them up while screwing them out.
angus67
Welder's penetrate deeper!!
you have to take them out to properly clean the idle circuit. just go easy with a small drill bit, then use a wood screw, screw it in, then with vise grips, grip the screw, and wiggle it out.
