cleaning and paint removal? BS34

I picked up a set of BS34s from the boneyard the other day. the guy told me not to mess with the diaphrams because that is how they get ruined. I want to clean these things out and get all the black paint off, but he has got me too nervous about the rubber diaphrams to do it.

if i take the tops off the carbs and take them all apart am i going to dammage the diaphrams? are new ones an arm and a leg...$$$....?

also any tricks for taking the black paint off and making them look new again?

thank you.

Yes, the diaphrams are an arm and a leg. I don't know about handling, but I imagine if you are careful with them and don't throw them in the bottom of your toolbox you should be fine.

Soak in lemon juice and it will eat the paint over a day or two. Lots of lemon juice.

I'll wager one or more diaphams are already bad as the carbs sit, so you might as well bite the bullit and take them out and at least inspect them. You'll probably have to replace all 4 either way. They are not all that expensive, $600-$650 will get you all set. Gotta love the CVs. My only motorcycle with CVs is the 84 Honda Goldwing and I made the mistake of cleaning the carbs and not replacing the diaphrams. Everything was great, then next year ran like crap and I find 2 diaphrams had cracked. My wife in her wisdom said "replace all 4". I say $180 each? I replace only the 2". Next season runs like crap, and I get the "told you so" from the wife as I spend 6 hours and $400 more to replace the other 2.

The diaphragms are an integral part with the slides and are about $65 each. They are not as delicate as people may make you think. just remove the tops and they slide right out. Inspect them carefully and if you find no holes you are OK. Put them aside and go to town on the rest of the carbs. I have a special math that cleans the carbs, and removes all paint. If you are interested I do complete carb overhauls for those carbs for $250 this includes jetting and mods for Pod filters. It would not include new slides if a diaphragm is bad. Here is a picture of some I have done. My turn around is 10 business days. You can email me at otto@condormodels.com

Not sure if this will be of any use, but just in case...

Motoallparts sells diaphragm repair kits for KZ440s & some other bikes (Hondas, Yamahas). A how-to w pics is included in the item descriptions. The guy lists the measurements & some of them look suspiciously similar to each other, so I kinda wonder if any of them will fit other bikes. Or, maybe he can get what's needed for other bikes, if enough requests are made. I contacted him about a 750-Twin but he didn't know if any of them would work.

Search ebbaayy for KZ440 diaphragm rubber.

Go for it. Nothing to be scared about
I clean out my CV carbs every year and the diaphragms are just fine.

Take the tops of and take em out. Just be a tad on the gentle side. Inspect and put aside while you work on the carb bodies.

thanks for the help guys, and encouragement. OTAKAR- where did you find the diaphrams for $65?

I am using pods, but these will go on my 650-810... got them off a gpz 750. Im hoping to get them ready to go while my cylinder block & top case half are at the machine shop.

The 34s would be a bit too big on the 650 but really nice on a 810. I found the slides here. www.mikesxs.net/products-75.html#products

OK, all the diaphrams are out and I havn't found any holes/dammage. NOW for the paint removal.... will this lemmon juce deal really work. is it ok to dunk the assemblies/ all 4 bodies?

the other option is this aircraft stripper i have. its made for aluminum paint removal, just not sure what it will do to the little rubber boods on the outside butterfly linkage.... if i go this route i'll put the tops back on as well as the bowls and tape up the air filter and intake openings and spray with caution.

any ideas????? good or bad idea? opinions?

thank you

Lemon juice will corrode the Aluminum and Paint remover will dissolve anything that is not metal. I use a mixture of Try-Butyl-Ether, Delimonene, Butyl-Alcohol and Ester-Ether to clean carburetors. This removes all residues and will not harm the plastic pieces on a carburetor.

Does that spray engine cleaner work? I'm getting a set of vm28's in the mail that will need a good cleaning. I was thinking I would spray them down with the engine cleaner and then scrub and pressure wash them. Any thoughts?
Sorry to bumrush the topic, I just thought it was along the same lines...

If it is just a simple HD cleaning than YES most definitely. Spray-um-hose-um. This should work fine.