STUCK SLIDE

Just picked up issue 211 and of course went straight to Tales From The Shed. The old stuck slide situation. Since retiring, my wife and I spend our winters in the southern California desert, away from our Canadian home and the cold.

Retirement affords one abundant leisure time and this can lead to pursuing suspicious activities, such as scouring Craigslist for future collector motorcycles available right now for a song.

My morning ritual.

I needed a project, so after some searching a complete, undamaged 1969 Yamaha

R3 350 came along. Being familiar with Japanese bikes of this era, the strip down was uneventful and pleasing.

Then to the carbs.

In the process of removing one of the float retaining pins, the post that the pin slides into broke off. Sound familiar? Yes I now know how to remove the pin using a spring-loaded centre punch.

No problem, ebay has an abundance of R3 carbs. After considering converting my twin carb Yammy into a single carb, one turned up. Undamaged with a stuck slide. Easy fix right?

I tried every penetrating oil known to man and woman.

I boiled the carb in a pot. I left it soaking in vinegar, Coca Cola, Marvel Mystery oil, ATF and even performed demonic rituals. OK, not really. The slide remained not sliding. Days passed with no success.

OK. Enough. Out came my $9.99 Harbor Freight heat gun. Which incidentally works as well as my expensive one at my other home. Many merciless heat treatments later, still stuck fast. Time out. I had about given up. One last time.

The heat was applied for so long I thought the carb body would melt. After a very long cool down some more penetrant was applied. The slide moved ever so slightly then popped out. Jubilation!

Expecting a damaged slide and carb body, I was shocked to see the slide had not a mark on it. Nor did the carburettor. It worked perfectly.

What had held the slide so tight? No sign of corrosion, goo or anything. One of life’s many mysteries.

It always makes my day when a new issue of RC is on my local news stand. Thanks for the hard work and excellent content.

Jeff Carruthers, Canada

Thank you, Jeff! Great tale. The Sunbeam’s carb is currently in the hands of a carb fettler, so… Frank W