1984 12a Niki OEM.
I have completed the disassembly of the carb per the Mazda Carburetor Manual.

Any recommendations for cleaner to soak the parts. I did see Berryman Chem Dip mentioned in a post and it is available at Auto Zone.
I am aware of the list of parts NOT to soak, but is it advisable to soak the Air Horn, Main Body, and Throttle Body?
If any of the three main parts should not be soaked, is there a recommended spray cleaner?

It has been many years since the carb has had a good bath.
(I was at Kroger the other day and they have a good selection of aluminum baking pans in assorted sizes.)

I had read some posts about the disasembly process, and loosing a small part. I cleaned out an old cat 6" deep litter pan and did the disaesembly inside the the carb up on a 4x4x6 wood block. It did prevent one of the ***** from rolling away.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

 

Carb rebuild kits: found differences.
Many years ago I bought a Wells kit because I needed the accelerator pump.
Later I bought a Hygrade kit because I thought I would be rebuilding the carb.
Eartly 2024 I bought a Walker kit because I forgot about the Hygrade.

The Wells and Walker are identical. Both came with 2 gaskets for the air horn to main body with slightly different configurations. One configuration is correct for my 1984.
Both the Wells and Walker have 2 identical gaskets for the throttle body to spacer. None of the 4 are correct as they do not have any of the vacuum holes.

All three kits have the correct gasket for the main body to throttle body.

The Hygrade has only one air horn to main body gasket and it is the correct one. There are 2 throttle body to spacer gaskets, one is correct with the correct vacuum holes, and another one with only 3 holes.

Other differences:
The Hygrade washers are plain metal, like the ones I took off. The majority of the washers in the Wells and Walker kits are a red color. I'm not sure why the difference.
The Hygrade accelerator pump diaphragm seems to be of a more substantial material.
The Hygrade kit came with 2 ball bearings. None were included in the Wells and Walker kits.
The rubber sight glass gaskets in the Wells and Walker kits are rounded O-rings. The ones in the Hygrade kit are flat on 2 sides, like OEM.
The Atkins kit on ebay is currently $125.95, with the same 2 incorrect throttle body to spacer gaskets and no correct ones.
The Hygrade is currently $45.38 at https://www.carid.com/hygrade/carbur...epair-kit.html

 

There is no gasket between the carb and phenolic spacer/vacuum plate. Carb bolts directly to it and it bolts directly to manifold.

No idea why the rebuild sets come with them.

 

I once knew that.
Thanks.

 

Back in the day of carbureted cars, I used to use MEK to clean carb parts. Read the caution label because it's flammable and has certain health hazards.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

i've used the gunk carb cleaner in the can with basket.

https://www.google.com/search?client...uretor+cleaner

 

Greatest parts cleaner I ever used late 1960's and early 1970's however, it is "extremely toxic," so use, nitrile, or rubber gloves, eye protection, and in a well-ventilated space. Gee, I wish I would known all that that back then!

 

Its a toss up between Berryman Chem-Dip Carburetor Cleaner and Gunk Carburetor Parts Cleaner. Localy both are $40 for the can.
The new Gunk apparently is not as effective as the old gunk. Eco-friendly.
The Berryman is stated to be safe for plastic parts.

I still need to figure out a way to soak the main body. I don't think it will fit through the can opening.

I'm going to pass on the MEK. I need to keep all of my remaining brain cells.

 

The Berrymans of today is nowhere near as good as the old stuff.

We used it at Saturn to clean pistons, because we did a lot of 1.9l rerings for oil consumption. Pull the engine apart and put the pistons and rods in the bucket overnight. Next morning, all the carbon was completely gone, rings unstuck, etc so you rinsed them off, popped in new rings, and reassembled.

The new stuff is junk in comparison. I bought a 5 gallon bucket a couple years ago and it didn't touch the carbon on the rotors I put in.

The old stuff was NOT plastic safe. Not at all. Put a valve stem seal in there and the next morning you could wear it like a ring.

 

None of them are what they once were. Safer to use but not as affective.