dunno if this is fixed yet, but i've mentioned it in some other threads. i've done this to my 450 hawk and it works great. first, take off the carbs. there's 4 screws per fuel bowl on the bottom of each carb (rectangular shaped side, not the round top side). take out all 8 screws, and take the bowls off. you'll see the big probably orange colored float that's attached to the actual float needle with a tiny lil clip. the float is held in with a pin that you can slide out with anything you can use to poke it. remove the pin, take the float off, then hopefully pull the float needle out. get a bottle of B12 chemtool for this job, preferrebly 1 can of spray and 1 bottle of pour type. soak all the lil pieces you took out in an old coffee cup or something you've poured a little b12 in from the bottle. take the rest of the carb outside somewhere away from anything that has paint, and start spraying the carb in every hole you can find to put the red nozzle in. then spray out the fuel bowl (rectangular bottom piece you took off). if you want, you'll see the jets on the carb, there should be 3 of em i think. you can remove those with a flathead or a socket on the bigger one, and soak those in the coffee cup. only need to soak those parts for maybe an hour or so. then reassemble everything and it should run like new! no leaks, more power, no cough or sputter. :D :D don't be scared of yer carbs, if you only take apart the parts i mentioned (and don't lose anything), you really can't screw anything up. the jets won't screw into the other holes, they're all different sized, and the float bowls are interchangable between the 2 carbs. so you really can't mess it up, and it'll only cost ya bout $12 compared to paying somebody an arm and a leg :D
Don't know why nobody has mentioned this but carb cleaner and rubber parts DON'T mix - make sure you don't get it on any of the o-rings.
this is very true. i've gotten b12 on my gaskets and they have survived, as long as you don't attempt to remove them. if you spray em down, they'll continue to work fine, but their life will be shortened to an extent. that fuel bowl gasket doesn't have to do much. so it's not horrible if you get it wet with b12. but definately don't intentionally soak anything in carb cleaner.
