Before I go postal . . .

[3hunerd]

OK, feeling awfully stupid about now. How the heck do you remove the needle from the PWK carb?? The flat slide carb was about my speed. Loosen nut, remove needle. How do you remove the cable from the friggin slide, and get at the 6 mm nut holding the needle? Been searching the internet forever, and looking here, and aside from the tips for holding the cable, I can't find anything detailed.

Pardon the frustration . . . but I had just about taken a sludge hammer to the carb. I could not believe that I could not turn the carb enough to access the float bowl (easily anyway). I did, but then I took off that 17 mm nut on the float bowl, expecting to be able to get at the main and the pilot jet. The nut allows you a peak at the pilot jet, just to tick you off. So, off came the float bowl. At that angle, it is just enough to allow the float pin to slip out (in case anyone was wondering). I cannot believe that managed to happen - I am hoping I did not tweak anything, cause I just reset my float height a while ago. I could really just scream. Anyhoo . . . back to the needle - how the heck do you get that sucker off of there??

~300

 

[HydroDog]

If I remember right;
Lift up the spring.
Under the spring there is a white nylon sleeve, turn the slide upside down and the sleeve should slide down the cable.
You should now be able to remove the cable from it's notch.
Then unscrew the needle holder with a 6mm socket.

 

[3hunerd]

Thanks HydroDog,

Can anyone confirm this? I tried pulling the spring up from the slide, and was not able to do so (but I did not turn it upsidedown). I could compress the spring from the top, and doing this I created some slack and tried to pull the cable from the slot, pushing down slightly. No luck. I'll try what you described.

300

 

[HydroDog]

once you pull the spring up as far as you can towards the cap you might have to grab the cable with a pair of needle nose pliers.

 

[barkeater]

I prefer a locking needle nose pliers. Leaves your hands free to do useful tasks. Don't let the collar fly off. It will go into low earth orbit if the spring lets go with it on the end. Pop the cable end out of the notch and you have a free slide to work with.

The cable holder needs be unscrewed to remove the needle. The only way to properly remove cable holder is with a ¼" ratchet and a 6mm socket. Turn counter clockwise to loosen. When you put it back together, don't over tighten it. Don't put a screwdriver in the slot to loosen. This will wreck your cable holder and slide.

Watch the float bowl screws too, they're made out of butter I think.

The PWK is a nice carb, you just need to get to know it first. The first time in, things are popping out and flying everywhere. It took me a couple trys my first time. I had fuel pouring everywhere when I reassebled it and I lost the collar somewhere when the spring launched it. Finally found it, two beers and two hours later, under the shelving on the opposite side of the garage.

Good luck.

Oh, while you're down there... watch out for the killer kickstand. It can remove chunks of bone from your jaw. I assume you have it on a stand.

 

[Brian VT]

I prefer a locking needle nose pliers.

+2. Pull the spring back torwards the cap and clamp a hemostat onto your throttle cable to hold it there. It's not mandatory but makes things quite a bit less stressful. Also, do the kickstand mod. before anything else. You'll feel stupid for not doing it while your picking your teeth up off the floor.

 

[GMP]

The needle retainer is soft and sometimes seizes in the slide so use a 6 point 6mm socket, and antiseize the threads on reassembly.

 

[3hunerd]

Awesome guys. Oh yeah, the kickstand . . . I have to share my first encounter. I went to look at the bike, and Craig of Keytime who's an awesome dude, met me on his day off from the shop to show the bike. I get there, and someone else had just been in, and had knocked over an 07 610 Husky, into I believe a GG (can't remember now), but dented the pipe on the Husky and did nearly a grand in damage. Then procedes to ask about the 08's before being thrown out of the store!!! Anyhow (pardon the lengthy story), I am trying to be as polite and treading as lightly as possible on those eggshells. Anyhow, I got on the bike to sit on it, and even though the kickstand nearly takes my calf off when I take the bike off the stand, that was not enough stimulus for the brain to recognize the thing requires weight to stay down. Needless to say, after dismounting I put the stand down, take a step away and the bike drops. IAt least I honored the "you break it you bought it" adage (course there were other reasons for doing so - and of course if I hadn't I would have made it right). Never felt like such an idiot though. At least I wasn't shopping for a Ducati or Beemer or something!!!

Time to go buy a hemostat, for that cable and the throbbing blood vessels in my head!

~300

 

[iancp5]

3hunerd,

The needle is easy once you get the hang. You don't need tools. It's possible to pull the spring back into the screw top of the carb including the white nylon bit, hold with one hand, then just push the cable into the slide and out of its notch. You need to have the slide out of the carb body & dangling from the cable / spring / screw top first of course.

As for the sidestand it's evil incarnate as standard. There's a simple fix which will be detailed on the forum somewhere if you search on sidestand. It moves the spring locating point so it doesn't ping back with the weight off it. Then you are only left with the normal dirtbike problem of the sidestand being too long when the bike has 40Kg of mud on it compressing the suspension!

 

[3hunerd]

That was not bad at all - I just held onto to spring tightly, and snuck the cable out. Getting it back on was a little harder, but not bad. Interesting set up compared to what others were running at least for warm conditions - seems a bit rich, except for that slide (and not sure about the needle, but am looking now):

172 main
48 slow
#8 slide
N1EF needle

Thanks again all.

~300

 

[skid jackson]

i use a set of small needle nose vise grips on the spring. works if you don't have hemostats handy.

ktm tool with a 6mm socket works great for getting that needle holder out.

 

[Loosenut]

Try a 42 pilot and you'll probably be happy.

 

[Eric K]

I have found the easiest way to change the pilot jet or work on the float is to lay the motorcycle on its side. The reason is that when the carb is rotated to access it, the float and float pin are nearly horizontal to the floor. The float pin does not fall out.

While you are at it, get allen head screws for the float bowl. They are much easier to remove and install without stripping.