Freeing Up Carbs on '66 Superhawk

[DerekSuperhawk305]

Lemon juice is too acidic for aluminum. Don’t do it. It will discolor it. This topic was just discussed last week and someone recommended a heat gun. That solved the poster’s problem. I soak mine in lacquer thinner or use a heated ultrasonic cleaner. G-man’s boiling remedy should work just fine too.

OK, thanks for the "Lemon juice is too acidic for aluminum" advise...I'm just use to old Linkert's on my ols HD's :)

[DerekSuperhawk305]

What about soaking them in ATF and acetone? I did that with the stuck pistons and it seem to do the trick although it took a long time.

Thanks Merz
Did you run into and stuck rings in the grooves and did you check compression after?

[Merz64cb77]

Hi Derek, after I got the pistons free I ended up going to oem 4th over pistons/rings and had the cylinders re bored. The engine builder did a compression test but I forget what the numbers were.

[Tim Allman]

Lemon juice is too acidic for aluminum. Don’t do it. It will discolor it.

This is almost true. The grey castings (carb bodies, fuel cock, clutch adjuster) are made of an alloy which is mostly zinc. (Note how heavy they are.) Zinc is easily dissolved by acids. Short exposures to acids, even weak ones like citric acid will cause cosmetic problems, a long soak can be quite destructive.

[Seadog]

Oops! Thanks for correcting my slip.