hey guys,

looking for a bit of insight here,

so the story this far. i noticed a sliver of oil (not enough to drip the floor) down the left engine case, pulled the fairing off and it seems to be coming from the back end of the head gasket, or it might just be gathering there but i can't really see.

there aren't any telltale blown head gasket issues, she just seems to be overly asthmatic at tickover but still plenty rideable, i mean before i noticed the oil leak she was more than happy to be ridden flat out and still will be. it does look like thats where the oil is coming from though.

so, i need to get the carbs off to confirm where the leak is before i splash out £70odd on a new head gasket but i've got 2 rounded carb boot screws! nightmare!

it's far left & far right, left not being a huge issue as i can drill the head off the screw but the far right is incredibly inaccessible...

any thoughts or previous experience?

excuse the long message but i like to be quite thorough lolz

thanks guys,
B.

 

If you are sitting on the bike, the cylinders are numbered 1,2,3,4, going left to right. When you say far left and right, do you mean 1 and 4 or 2 and 3?
Also, if you get 2 of the 4 screws loosened up, you may be able to rock the carb rail enough to get it pulled off of the intakes. It will be a bit of a chore though and you may wind up replacing the boots. Also heating them up with a hair dryer can help. It makes them softer.

 

yeah dude sitting on the bike 1 being far left and 4 being far right, the opposing outermost 1 & 4 are rounded, 4 being the main problem.

i gave the carbs a wiggle at first and there wasn't any give so i didn't really think you could just rock them off.

i'll give that a go though,
cheers dude.

 

You really got to go after it. You will swear they won't come free, but they will eventually. Some folks use a pry to GENTLY apply pressure.

 

quite right! spent an evening being creative with that last screw, managed to finally get an easy-out on it using various 3/8 adapters & an epoxy haha snapped the easy-out... plenty of swearing.

in the end brute force and ignorance prevailed haha big flat head screwdriver and lots of rocking/prying, silicon spray & 20 minutes later it popped off with little fuss.

i've never had to go to such extents to rip a set of carbs off before haha as to why they use such crappy little screws that don't even have hex heads i'll never know, ahwell it's a chance to replace them i guess.

can't directly see where the oil is coming from so it's going to get a thorough clean, put back together & taken out for a wee thrash. hopefully see where it's coming from after that.

cheers for the suggestion though dude, i'd still be on a mission trying to get that screw out

 

My pleasure friend. Been there before myself.