The Hodaka Club Forum

I've encountered quite a few pilot jets that have had their 'ears' stripped off. My usual method was to drill them out to disengage the tapered business end from the threaded part and usually the remains can be picked out. I've heard of reverse drills working but never had one. It's a bit hairy as you don't want to chew into the carb body.

Yesterday, I hit upon using a 5/64 allen as an easy out. A 2mm is the same size, if that's handy. I ground a 60 degree - approximately - taper on the flats of the long end and then held the short end in needle nose vicegrips. A few gentle taps of a hammer to seat it in the brass and the tool had made its own hex in the jet. Needless to say, it worked well.

If you're short of a replacement jet, I suppose you could use the 'tool' to reinstall it. You could also grind the wrench square again, if need be, not that I often need the long end anyway.

That’s a great tip. I recently had to remove a pilot jet from a BMW Bing carby for the same reason. I tried ezy outs but being brass, the ezy out just chipped and shaved the brass. I only got it out just before touching the carby body by really hammering the bit into the metal. I think the Allen key wouldn’t try to turn its way out of the brass like an ezy out.

It's a bit early to celebrate on this method; so far only a sample of one, but it sure worked well the first time. I think the easy out might work better in steel than brass. The other thing is that hammering the key in also may help in breaking up the corrosion or crud that made it hard to remove to begin with.

Having a dedicated screwdriver that fits snug in the hole and has a tip that fits tight in the slot is cheap to make and saves so much grief and time in the long run. I described this in a Resonator article recently. It's nice to have specialized tools but even nicer when you've made them yourself from commonly available objects.

That's the thing about tools. With tools you can make more tools. I'm lucky in that two of my best friends are machinist/welders so I learn a lot just in passing, and if it's beyond my 'metal carpentry' skills I can call in the pros.

Jpark can you send pictures of tool you made and how it fits into Pilot Jet, carb., part.

I don't think a picture would be necessary. It's just like a sharpened hexagonal pencil, clamped in a vicegrip to make it easy to hold and tap in.