Gregory Bender

Separating the carburetor from the intake manifold

Moto Guzzi V700, V7 Special, Ambassador, 850 GT, 850 GT California, Eldorado, and 850 California Police models

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Thanks to Charlie Mullendore of Antietam Classic Cycle for providing the following information on the old Yahoo! Loopframe_Guzzi news group (which has now moved to Groups.io). In Charlie's own words:

As others have mentioned, twisting and pulling at the same time is how they normally come off. Unfortunately, there's not a lot of room to work without crushing your fingers (ouch!). In the most extremely stuck cases, I do one of two things:

  1. Remove the carb with manifold, bolt them to a spare junk head held in my bench vise and then do the twist and shout...er, pull. Still, they're a pain to remove.
  2. Alternatively, use a block of wood (my choice is white pine 2 inch × 2 inch, 10 inch long) to drive them off of the manifold. Butt the end of the 2 inch × 2 inch up against the forward end of the carb where the manifold goes in (never the square area or the bowl!), use a hammer to whack the 2 inch × 2 inch, drive first on the top and then underneath, alternating to keep the carb coming off straight back. (Thanks to Mike Tiberio for this tip).

Before installing, make sure the manifold is free of burrs, corrosion, etc. by dressing the area the carb slips up onto with Scotchbrite. Likewise, make sure the plastic sleeve in the carb isn't cracked, burred or deformed - it can be lightly dressed with sandpaper if needed. Coat the plastic sleeve of the carb lightly with anti-seize, same with the manifold. Carb should slip on a lot more easily, wipe off any excess anti-seize.