warning, do not put this back on your bike...

[al v]

If you are lucky enough to get this off your bike, do not put it back on!

This is one of the dowels that hold the carbs together.

I feel lucky that 6 of the 8 dowels were lose.

I spent well over an hour getting #7 to let go.

#8 is really stuck, no movement whatsoever, still have two carbs stuck together...

Currently, I have plugged one end of the bolt hole and have filled it with penetrating oil.

In the pic below, you can see the effort required after seperating the carbs just to pull the dowel out of the other carb. That almost turned into major surgery before it let go.

I didn't understand why the redeye kit came with plastic dowels before, now I do...

I will never put those metal dowels back on the bike!

Has anyone found any better ways to seperate the carbs?

[al v]

Succes. Ended up using wooded shims (repeatedly) to get the first 1mm or so, then more penetrating oil and a whole lot of wiggling.

This time, instead of vice grips, I used a drill bit to spin out the dowel once the carbs were apart, much easier.

About 3 hours of keeping at it all together...

[pancho]

hey al v,,, I guess it goes that way some times,,,, like you said feel fortunate more were not locked like that!!  You may want to apply a bit of air pressure to the open end of the tube to force the penetrating oil into the dowel area.... may quicken up the process.

[Brian]

Rich includes a tool for carb separation in his new rebuild kits now. I did not need it but did have trouble removing three of the pipe dowels. His hit of using a solid rod and vise grips worked great. I used a punch, believe it was 1/4 in. Penetrating oil was also used. His cheap flux brush handle thing wasn't worth a crap to push mine out.

[Chillerman]

I used a knife blade and a hammer to get a small gap to where I could get screwdrivers in to pry them apart. No fun at all!

[JaysGone]

I got so frustrated when I 1st got the Valk and 1  o-ring was leaking. I ended up just smashing the carbs and getting a used set.