<Begin rant> The Valkyrie carburetors are joined together with 303 stainless steel hollow dowels, with a clearance of about .001". A corrosion-novice would think that stainless steel would be a super way to do this. It just so happens that in the presence of salty water, aluminum touching stainless steel becomes a battery. It is the same process behind all the other types of batteries out there: Dissimilar metals in contact plus an electrolyte. A little bit of salt spray from a nearby ocean or a salted road makes these joints into a battery comparable to a NiCad. The end result is corrosion so the carbs refuse to separate from eachother when you decide to work on them. White aluminum oxide grit gets packed so tightly between the aluminum and the stainless pins that it is like glue. Removing a hollow stainless dowel takes so much force, that at least one of the TWELVE dowels gets destroyed. That is the part that pisses me off. WTH, Keihin? The hollow pins joining the Valkyrie carbs should have been made of a plastic like Delrin 150. I've included a picture of the Galvanic series for metals in seawater.
<End rant>
Rich
