jet needle slides

[mack]

anyone ever put lithium grease on their slides, or, is this just not required?

[natemoen]

Lithium grease tends to get gummy after awhile. I personally leave them dry.

[BA80]

What Nate said.....

[cywelchjr]

If I do anything with mine, I put a little silicone spray on them, but I generally don't do anything with them, they get just enough from the fuel and from the blow by from the crankcase to keep them moving freely without me having to do anything.

[James England]

Absolutely no way would I use anything other than a light spray of silicon spray. Proper throttle operation depends on the carb diaphragms acting asap on the slides. If you introduce resistance like grease, you'll end up trying to blip your throttle and find nothing happens.

[brcree]

slides...

Has anyone used powdered graphite?

[cywelchjr]

Has anyone used powdered graphite?

I see the wink. I think that powdered graphite wouldn't stick around long enough to do anything, and if it did, I think it would be more likely to turn into mud on the outside of the slides.

[jeffro1954]

sewing machine oil.

[James England]

No oil. Just leave them alone. They were never designed to be lubricated.

[cywelchjr]

I mentioned spray silicone as the only lube I would use, but normally the only thing I do to them is clean them up good to make sure there is nothing foreign on them so they move freely. There IS some sort of coating on them, and the slight oiliness of the gas and such itself provides all of the slip they need.

There are one of the closest fits I've ever seen, which is why you have to be very careful about damaging them, but if you damage them, no amount of lube is going to fix that, and if they are not damaged, they will move fine. But all it takes to make them hang up is a thin film of varnish from the gasoline in the carbs, it's that close of a tolerance, so just about anything you try and put on them is going to get in the way of them working properly.

[crazy steve]

If you're having issues with the slides being a bit 'sticky' even after cleaning, I've lightly 'polished' the slides and their bores with 0000 steel wool and that's done the trick. This needs to be done while the carbs are off/apart, as you don't want the steel particles getting inside the motor...

[mack]

Good

That's good cuz I haven't been putting anything on em with the 79 carbs, working on 80/81 's now and was wondering if I'd been negligent. I must say though that I much prefer the 78/79 carb's. They have more tuning options and float valve set up is better. These 80/81 carbs seem a bit mickey mouse to me. BTW, the silver round disc I gather is to be inserted over the idle screw passages. Isn't there a better way, like a rubber plug you could get out more easily in the future?

[natemoen]

I am planning on shoving a rubber plug in mine, so something else haven't decided. I am not putting one of.those brass discs back over it though.

[cywelchjr]

I am planning on shoving a rubber plug in mine, so something else haven't decided. I am not putting one of.those brass discs back over it though.

Yeah, the plug for the hybrid carbs low speed jet is just the right size for that mixture screw tunnel, and you can get them from MikesXS.

[mack]

plugs

Cy you got a number for them, is that the passage plugs on mikes XS?