Carb Rebuilding ?'s

[AR5ENAL]

I pulled off my exhaust, airbox and carbs the other day and I have a couple of questions about the carb rebuild:

1.  Is it okay to use brake cleaner on the carb bodies to clean them?  (I have 2 rebuild kits from PartsNMore, so I'm not worried about the Orings)  I'll be taking off the diaphragms too, so they don't warp.

2.  I noticed a small crack in the rubber piece that connects the upper T fitting to the carbs (piece #57 below).  I haven't noticed any leaking or anything, but ideally, I'd replace this.  It involves separating the carbs, so how hard is this to do?

[The Buddha]

Brake kleen is like gasoline... use that instead... but brakekleen wont hurt.
Cracked 57 wont make any diff, forget it.
Cool.
Srinath.

[AR5ENAL]

sweeeeet.  no separating carbs for me.  i was surprised at how much freaking gunk was built up on those things when i pulled them off.  i thought i would have to replace a whole mess of stuff, but it looks like the only things i need new ones of are the float drain screws...they were rusted to hell...and back.