Need help removing air horns from weber 45DCOE's

[andrewzuku]

Hey everyone,

I have a pair of 45DCOEs with 26mm air horns inside the airbox in my RA28.



I want to inspect/rebuild my carbs and double-check the size of the auxilary venturis. The problem is, the air horns are stuck on there really well!

They're the aluminium "slip-in" type. Just in-case you're thinking I'm overlooking the obvious, I've removed the bolts and tabs holding the little lips down first

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get them off without scratching/damaging them?

Andrew

[Xauterus]

You could try heating them round the outside of the carb body with a heat gun to see if that helps. Otherwise you might need to use a propane torch to warm the body up. Have you tried soaking them with plenty of penetrene, not just WD40?

[andrewzuku]

Hey Xauterus. Thanks for taking the time to reply.

WD40. Blasphemy! We're strictly an inox house here, haha

I didn't know how much heat I could put into anything, so I didn'y try that.

I ended up getting the base of two 2" exhaust U-bolts and bolting them together around the lip. That gave me something to vice-grip to. I then used two vice-grips and shimmie'd it off.




I've lightly sanded, polished, and greased the ourside of the air horn before putting it back on. They're now easy to get on and off.

Andrew

[king-szeitszam]

Sorry to hijack your thread but damn your intake setup is sexy. Where'd you get that airbox?

[andrewzuku]

It's a genuine 18R-GU one that was damaged. I cut the flat section out (keeping the lip) and made my own holes to fit 45DCOEs, bought through http://www.importmonster.com.au/ . I've used http://www.jauce.com/ too who are cheaper.

2T-G air boxes pop up fairly regularly if you keep an eye out. They're the same except a couple of different air hose fittings. I've seen them go for as little as $11 plus all the import monster fees. I wasn't in a rush, so sea-freight was about $50. The hardest part to get seems to be the air filter housing for an 18R-G / 18R-GR / 18R-GU

All up the box cost me about $100, and the air horns were from dellorto.co.uk

[king-szeitszam]

Great answer mate, thanks for that. Never thought to check out IM.
Rep for you!

[Duk]

A heat gun would be OK, but I wouldn't put a naked flame to a carby body. They always seam to be made out of a really soft metal.
You might also try getting some dry ice and putting it down the trumpets, packed it as tightly as you can against the inner wall of the trumpet and then try and twist the trumpet as it cools and contracts, hopefully breaking what ever is sticking it/them in place. Much less chance of doing any damage, but wear gloves.

[allencr]

So what was holding them in there?
Thanks for the clamp idea!

[andrewzuku]

They were just really tight. I remember tapping them in thinking they'll be a bugger to get back out. A little bit of grease when installing seems yo have made all the difference