OK, so I'm a newbie to HD, so flame me if necessary. Yesterday, I pulled my CV carb on my 2000 WG to give it a good cleaning. Bike was running fine, but the carb had never been cleaned. All went well. I pulled it apart, and gave it a cleaning with carb cleaner. All looked pretty good inside. Then, after the fact, I figured I'd read the shop manual to see if I missed anything (I know, bad idea doing this AFTER the job). There I read the following:

CAUTION
The carburetor body is equipped with plastic parts that cannot be removed. Do not dip the carburetor body, O-rings, float assembly, needle valve or vacuum piston in a carburetor cleaner or other harsh solution that can damage these parts. The use of a caustic carburetor cleaning solvent is not recommended. Instead, clean the carburetor and related parts in a petroleum-based solvent, or Simple Green. Then rinse in clean water.

Did I ruin all my O-rings and plastic parts by cleaning with carb cleaner? I was careful not to get any on the slider diaphragm, but was pretty generous with it elsewhere.

 

I doubt that you damaged or compromised the metal parts just by dipping your carb and any o-rings, gaskets, or diaphragms you may have damaged can be easily replaced. Get a rebuild kit and mixture screw packing kit and replace them all...and if your fuel inlet fitting is plastic, replace it also. You can find all the parts you need here. http://cv-performance.com/harley-cv-carburetor-parts

Good luck.

 

Carb cleaner and other solvents can damage certain plastic parts. However, it takes time for those parts to degrade. You should be fine right now, but a good rebuild should be in your future. The soft parts of the carb (O rings, gaskets, etc...) probably need replacing anyways being as old as it is.

 

Thanks guys. I'll be able to sleep at night knowing this is a relatively easy fix. I did not dip or soak the carb or any parts in carb cleaner for an extended time. Just sprayed and wiped. I just pulled the carb off (again) and took a look inside, and the o-rings and gaskets look normal. Nevertheless, I agree that as the bike is almost 17 yrs old, it's probably a good time to go about replacing the soft parts, especially now that the carb is off and it's winter (not much riding in my part of the world [Ontario, Canada] for another few months anyway).

 

When it comes to carbs, do like the Rolling Stones and "shine a light". The two main parts that will deteriorate are the main diaphragm and the accelerator diaphragm. Pull 'em out, shine a bright flashlight behind 'em, if you see light - replace the part. Else put it in and go. I guess the main diaphragm can stretch out or something but it's likely just fine.

I read a site a while back that had good support for using brake cleaner on the carb. That's what I use - for better or for worse.

 

Thanks for that JesseDyna. I did examine the main diaphragm with a light behind it, and it looked good. The accelerator pump diaphragm was totally dried out and cracked, so obviously needs replacement.

 

I doubt todays carb cleaners are strong enough to do any damage.

 

I don't see any problem with using spray throttle body and carb cleaner on the carb. Done it many times. I like to see something spraying out of places where it is supposed to spray out. Sea Foam works pretty good also.

 

There's a difference between what you said you did and the warning you posted. Old school carburetor cleaning DIPS aren't the same as the modern carburetor cleaning SPRAYS or even those that are added to the gas. I wouldn't dip the CV carb in carb dip, but a good cleaning with the spray is fine. It's quite possible the settings have been altered in the disassembly/reassembly, rather than the idea that the spray ruined something.

 

Thanks for that Ridewright. As the accelerator pump diaphragm is FUBAR, I'm thinking I may as well get the whole rebuild kit from CV performance, and replace everything anyway. I'm also thinking that this will be a good time to replace the plastic fuel inlet elbow with a brass one (I'm a little intimidated by the procedure, but think I can pull it off).

As for settings, I've been careful not to mess with the fuel/air mixture screw or float adjustment, so I'm hoping it will run fine when reassembled. Anything else I should be thinking about?