The Replacement

First, let me rant a little bit regarding the US Postal Service; the seller is located approximately 230 miles from me (in a suburb of Indianapolis, IN). My parents happen to also live in a suburb of Indy. How can it take a letter (from me to them, or them to me) a maximum of three days to arrive and yet it took the carburetor ONE WEEK (shipped on 4/16, arrived 4/23)? How!? It's no wonder the USPS continues to lose market share. The government should privatize the US Mail. Others have shown it can be done more efficiently and cost less. Grrrr. OK, rant over.

Since my long weekend was pretty much over by the time the carburetor arrived (Easter Sunday was a day with family), I did manage to get it disassembled and cleaned. It looks like it had been bead blasted yet there was still quite a bit of foreign matter in the jets and emulsion tube (it almost looked like dirt). Fortunately, a healthy dose of GumOut carburetor cleaner did the trick and it now looks pretty good.

It's hard to tell from the image but the exposed surfaces have a slightly 'grainy' texture indicative of bead/sand blasting (not my chosen method for cleaning carburetors). There is some evidence of corrosion but much less than the OE unit currently on the NX. I have taken measurements to compare and contrast against the OE unit. I also plan to use Gasolia E-Seal, instead of the Teflon tape, to help seal the emulsion tube to the carburetor body.

Most of the remaining internal pieces will go unused (perhaps with the exception of the float and the float valve). The emulsion tube, air/fuel mixture screw, pilot jet, return spring and main jet are different parts (understandably so, since this carburetor fed a 200cc motor). The OE float is hollow plastic and, at some point, may begin to fill with gas (failure). The phenolic float from the replacement carburetor is solid and cannot fail in this manner. Additionally, it has an adjustable tab so the float height can be adjusted. However, I'm not sure if the phenolic float will fit in the OE float bowl. I can also make use of the slide, provided they're the same. The replacement carburetor came with a 105 main jet. That's one (perhaps two) steps richer than OE (which is 100). It also has a 35 pilot jet, one step leaner than OE (which is 38) and is partially clogged. The replacement came with no needle (I knew this) which undoubtedly had a different profile anyway. I plan to replace the carburetor-to-manifold o-ring as well as the manifold-to-engine o-ring. These are basic hardware store items (it helps to have an 'industrial' hardware store, that caters to the trades, close by).

The weather this week is forecast to be damp but variable. I may get to ride a couple, three days - fingers crossed.