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Any tips on removing stubborn brass drain screws on float bowls?

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MrDavo:
I had this problem with my CL450 - although the carbs were in good condition, those soft drain screws hadn't been out for decades, as the old fuel in the bowls dried into a nasty grey powder. They were well and truly stuck.

In desperation I put them in the vice (using rags to protect the alloy and being very careful only to wind the vice in enough to locate, not crush them!), and got the blowlamp out, and heated them up, the alloy should expand more than the screw. It was hard to get enough purchase on the slightly damaged screw slots, so I used a large cranked screwdriver , like this:



That way I got lots of torque on the screw, once the bowl was good and hot, both screws suddenly came free with a crack.

Edited to add: A similar procedure, but using a fine cranked screwdriver and heat, was also needed to get out the brass jets, which were also stuck in the carb body with corrosion and powdered dried out fuel, as well as blocked with the same crud.

Spurred on by my success I then used the blowlamp to heat the carb body while I drifted out the stuck brass float pins with a fine drill, all fun and games until the solder holding the brass float assembly together melted and, to my horror, it all fell apart in an instant....  :-[ :-[ :-[

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