Do I need to remove the plastic carb spacers for cleaning? Air jet setting?

[noiseguy]

Hi all!

Question: Do I need to remove the plastic spacers for cleaning? They aren't removed in the (notably curt) teardown in the manual I'm using. I can't see what there is to get plugged up behind there. Any insight would be appreciated; my first instinct is to leave them alone.

Also, starting setting for the air screws is 3 turns out... yes?

New to the board, going through my set of carbs on a new-to-me 1990 GS. This board's been a lot of help; the Clymer manual I'm using leave a lot to be desired.

I've pulled and cleaned about everything else. Found lots of weird and missing stuff, like missing top vacuum o-rings, and the air (pilot) screws were completely turned in. Lots of varnish and bad gas. It ran, barely and badly, and I'm going through them and the valves as a first step. The needle valves are questionable so I have a couple of kits from partsandmore coming in to replace those.

[xanthras]

Do you mean the plastic slide guide? I just removed mine for the first time. The emulsion tube in it was freaking disgusting so I would say yes. I also hear you cannot get them as an individual part so be careful. As suggested by another member which really helped me, if you have a hard time getting it out use one of your bowl screws. Screw it in to the main jet and use it to press out the emulsion tube. There are eight holes in that tube and they can get clogged. I am pretty much a noob so you may want to get more responses from one of the gurus on the board.

[cboling]

I think that all the information you have probably found here is really good. I don't think it is as clear in the Clymer either but I'm a goober anyway.  One thing I would definitely suggest is taking a bread tie wrap and stripping off the colored sheath to expose the wire. Then straighten it really well. Then, poke it down the emulsion?  tube (skinny tube that sits down in the float bowl.) I think my final problem was mostly that those little tiny holes were gunked up. That step didn't seem to be discussed anywhere that I read and believe me, I searched.

Also, as far as taking out the plastic pieces, If you slightly loosen the main jet (big brass screw piece that screws into the bottom tube of the plastic) then LIGHTLY tap it, loosen some more and LIGHTLY tap, you will notice that the plastic will free itself and then it will slide out fairly easily. Mine was really stuck in there and that got it freed up. I cleaned mine too and it did have some minor grime and what not. You also need to check the o-ring at the bottom of the plastic to make sure it isn't broken. (DON'T REMOVE IT, Just inspect.) If it looks good, it probably is okay. If it is broken, you may not find one locally the same size and you will have to order it.

Good luck, once you do that stuff, you will probably fix the majority of the running problems.

Also, I read it was 2 turns for stock. 3-5 as others will state. 2.5 seems to be a good starting point as well.

[xanthras]

yea i know. emulsion tube, needle jet, jet needle whatever. Its that skiny tube with the holes...Mine was so gunked up that the tappig the jet method didnt work, at least not to the point I could get it out. The longer bowl screws gave me enough movement to get some carb cleaner in there and then they popped out.

[noiseguy]

OK, I think we're talking about 3 different things. This is a 1990 model; maybe other years differ.

I've already pulled the emulsion tubes. I laughed at the suggestion by the aftermarket manual to remove these with a pair of needle-nose pliers. There are a couple of ways to do this; I used a centering punch (have them in 1/64's gradation) to knock them out after removing the main jet. There's a lip on them you can catch which is a little smaller in diameter than the main jet threads ID. They came out with little effort this way and without damage. And yes, they were disgusting and completely blocked up on the kickstand side.

Now that the emulsion tube is out, I'm left with a set of carb castings with little white plastic blocks stuck in (plastic slide guides.) This is the way it came apart and the way it's shown on the microfiche. Do the plastic slide guides usually come out with the emulsion tube?

Do I need to remove these guides now? I can't see what I'd be cleaning out, since they don't appear to be fuel bearing.

[xanthras]

My plastic guides came out with my tube.  I can't see much reason to clean them myself unless they are really dirty. Not sure on the # turns out for stock. If it has a jet kit in it you can find some info on the chart here: http://wiki.gstwins.com/index.php?n=Upgrades.Rejetting

[The Buddha]

Yea pull em with your first finger.
There is O ring underneath that prolly got caramelised in that 90 ... if your emulsion tubes had rust, these are cooked.
I'll add an O ring pack to your jet order for 8 bones. Shipping free with jet kit. Just watch the labelling and try to read my handwriting ... 
Cool.
Buddha.

[noiseguy]

I'll give the suckers a pull tomorrow then and see if I can get them to budge. I tried pulling up on them lightly and they weren't moving. I'll post back with how it goes.

I'll take you up on the offer for the o-rings with the new jets Paypal on the way.