Been one of those days. 2 steps forward...2 rakes trodden on. That kind of day.
Stopped off on the way home to pick up some fresh drill bits to drill out the offending screws if needed ( my 6mm was blunt and I had snapped my last 4mm for pilot hole drilling to keep it centred. Helps get past the awkward bit where teh drill has to get trhough the centre of the cross ... and to the shed I went!
One last try with the impact driver and my largest hammer was called for, before I broke out hte drill and dived in.
Bang...bang...bang...shift. YES! it moved! One screw out.... on to the next.
Bang...bang...bang...shift. YES! The bigger hammer was a success and the overnight soak in penetrating oil had probably helped too.
No stopping me now!
Bang...bang...slip. That didn't feel right. Not to worry I thought, just means I have to drill this one out. Well....not exactly.
The bottom left screw head was still perfect. It was just full...of impact driver head. Bugger. Damn thing had broken up! A funeral service will be held later. IOty had been a loyal servant and had fallen in the line of duty... Now I got to go buy another one. No way was I going to try another impact bit, as none of the others fit the screw, and I was not going to even bother trying an ill fitting one. Just going to mash the screw to no purpose.
So...I figured I would move on to another less strenuous task where an impact driver was not going to be needed ( probably... ) and I started on the carbs.
Floatbowls came off easy, and still held liquid. Probably petrol once. Wouldn;t call it that now. But liquid all the same. Usually makes life a whole lot easier when they are not completely dry....unless they were properly drained. Which they were not.
Jets were a bit gunked up but they all shifted easily and the emuilsion tubes came out after. Not...with...as usually happens. I alwys get nervous with brass screws, as they snap easily under stress and strain. Bit like me.....
Next I popped the carb tops off and all looked pretty clean. Slides etc. are not an easy strip on this type of carb...All rods and linkages rather than old fashioned screw top carbs. I noticed the throttle cable bracket was a bit wobbly...and needed a tighten up. Nope. It was tight. Then I saw the issue.
The bracket is held on by a single screw and a cast in pin on the carb body. That pin was no longer part of the carb body. Worse...the stress had been applied to the cast boss on the carb body....and that had caused a crack in the carb body. Wish I had never looked now.
Now...I could fix the pin with a drill/tap and screw a peg in. Not sure about hte carb body though. I mean...I could bodge a fix with chemical metal/araldite....or I could get it welded up...or source another set of carbs. The question is...whether I can get a good set of carbs, what they will cost.....
Fixing would mean taking the carbs apart from the mounting bracket. I have never done this...and have...in the past...done EVERYTHING to avoid it. All the shafts and springs and whatnot all need to be properly aligned, and choke flaps ahve to come off...and so on. But any fix is going to need access to the side of the carb...and it's one of the inners...
But I need to make a decision on this before I go any further with the carbs, as any kind of cleaning and fettling is going to be a waste of time if the carbs are not usable.