honda 250es choke valve's stuck

[dustrunner]

had the carb soaking in carb cleaner 2 weeks and still cant get choke valve out of carb ... any suggestions ? the cable is still hooked 2 it....

[shortline10]

Clean with mineral spirits to remove any flammables , run compressed air to dry it up good and apply a small amount of heat with a torch at the body of the carb were the choke plunger is located and it will come out . Might take a couple heat cycles but this is how I do the stubborn ones .

[dougspcs]

Been there, done that..a few years back I had an SX with a similar condition.

The only thing I could do was soak it for a few days as you have done...then grab the cable with a pair of visegrips and pull.

It would either break free or break.

I got lucky!! Hopefully you will too if it comes to this!!!

[atc007]

Clean with mineral spirits to remove any flammables , run compressed air to dry it up good and apply a small amount of heat with a torch at the body of the carb were the choke plunger is located and it will come out . Might take a couple heat cycles but this is how I do the stubborn ones .

And if the cable pulls out while doing this... Which up here,,99% of the time it Will. Work the plunger with a screwdriver,,spinning it around. They will almost always spin.. Holding the carb upside down with lots of PB blaster.. Clean out with starting fluid,reapply PB,,just keep working it to CLEAN the crap out. Don't get in there with needle nose and pull until you are SURE it will pull. I've broken one and both tabs off the plunger before. But always get them. I have done easily 100 of these between sleds and ATV's over the years. Never threw one away yet. Another great idea would be freezing it with the stuff Fabio talks about. But I have yet to try that 1st hand.

[dustrunner]

Another great idea would be freezing it = welp maybe I will set it outside and wait for the big storm. does this plunger valve have an o ring ? its an 85

[tri again]

Another great idea would be freezing it = welp maybe I will set it outside and wait for the big storm. does this plunger valve have an o ring ? its an 85

Good idea to check.
The early ones, 85 had no O ring but later had a square cut oring.
What is the number on your crb?
qa 001?
Good topic for the search key.
I've heard they can cause real headaches.
Cable can pull out and tabs can break as you've heard.
I actually have an aftermarket pumper carb on one sx with an actual
flapper choke, but oem is always nicer imo.

[trike savior]

freezing won't undo the gas turned back to crude oil gunk that is holding it in there. the only thing that will is heat as shortline suggested. don't yank it out, the heat will work. be careful, you can melt the carb body with a plumber torch. it can take quite a bit of heat just watch it. first sign of melting or distortion, remove the heat.

[Flyingw]

Trike Savior is right about the heat. Be very careful with it. The carb bodies are cast aluminum and it doesn't take much heat to anneal the aluminum. The aluminum will expand pretty fast as compared to other metals.

[Flyingw]

The carb in the pic above has the choke valve stuck in it right now. I've had it soaking in Heptane overnight to dissolve any residual petroleum. Later today I will blow it dry and hit it with some heat hoping it will loosen the choke valve.

[tri again]

is heptane like a paint thinner?
I've seen gas turn into some beautiful crystalline
almost invisible 'varnish' type stuff. Better coating than a professional
airbrush painter..

Hey if it does have an oring, is there a chemical that would melt the rubber
and NOT make it worse?

[tri again]

Another great idea would be freezing it = welp maybe I will set it outside and wait for the big storm. does this plunger valve have an o ring ? its an 85

I've dripped that freezing wart remover stuff on carb jets to shrink them
as liq nitrogen is hard to come by.
Timing is everything when it comes to heat / freezing tricks
as the temps can cross between the different metals / parts.
Not recommending, but philosophically, heat the carb in a 212*F oven and shrink the
piston / jet with freeze off.
As I recall, we'd do stuff like that with bearings and races.

[Flyingw]

Heptane is a solvent. For dissolving petroleum, it works fantastic. There is some stuff better called AK225. That too is a solvent used in many industries like Heptane but both are spendy. Heptane is about 80.00 for a 5 gal bucket but worth its weight in gold in my book. We used that at work to clean hydraulic filters and it gets the oil out..... I'm not sure I know what you mean when you say melt the rubber and not make it worse?? To me, almost pure isopropyl alcohol is an excellent cleaner and degreaser. 99% pure does a great job dissolving petroleum. I keep a squirt bottle in my shop and I spray down parts before powder coat with it. I have used it to soak carbs in before bead blasting as well. It has many uses. There are many grades of isopropyl alcohol but I've found the 99% works best. I get it in 5 gal buckets and I go through a 5 gal bucket about once a year.

[tri again]

I was thinking about melting the rubber o ring if it has one on the plunger
that might be making it stick in addition to the corrosion and petrol residue

[Flyingw]

Gotcha!!! The chemical in a carb dip might over time do that but what you would need to melt or dissolve rubber is more of an acid but that type of chemical would almost certainly damage the carb. I have had very good luck with keeping the hole filled with a Teflon lube for a couple of days then degreasing the hole and drying before hitting it with heat. You know, an old Blacksmith trick to freeing up corroded bolts it to heat the part up mind you it was normally steel and dripping candle wax on it. The wax is pulled in to the part. I wonder if this technique would work for these stubborn choke valves. The idea here is to separate the choke valve from the bore.

[DasUberKraut]

Acetone dissolves rubber rather quickly.