Ok as reading in the clymer manual, part of the cleaning of the carb's it say's to remove the pilot screw. This requires the special d shaped tool...how can i get one of those

 

I didn't take mine out when I cleaned my carbs. I didn't have the tool. You can google Motion Pro Pilot Tool and find plenty of places to buy.

 

I bought three can's of carb cleaner i'm assuming that i should pull the guts out, spray down everything except the rubber diaphram, check the jets are clean then put it back together

 

The Honda manual recomends not removing them unless you absolutely have to. But if you still want to take them out, I have a spare pilot tool if you want it. You would just have to cover shipping costs.

 

Well if i dont have to then i dont want too, my bike has 64495 miles on it...but it runs like a top atleast up untill my r/r went out monday...it hesitates and just generally feels underpowered, i'm assuming this is due to the carb's needing a good once over ya know? I cant fix the rr till next friday so i figured i've got a week to pull the carb's clean them and get it back together plenty of time, but id' like to do it right the first time through

 

Know what you about doing things right the first time. My guess is that the hesitation is coming from the r/r going out and the bike just running on the battery. I just went through my carbs and they were in pretty bad shape, air leaks from bad o-rings and in just a need of severe cleaning. I tore my carbs completely down and installed new stuff. But I did leave the pilot screw alone because of the recomendation from Honda. I've been dying this summer because I haven't had a running bike, the carb insulators have been on back order for some time now. Looking forward to getting it back together and seeing how everything goes.