Cleaning carbs myself as a beginner - Help!

Hello all, I have a 1985 Yamaha Maxim XJ700 that I am currently disassembling and cleaning the carbs of according to Rick Massey's guide I found on here. I'm up to the part about getting the pilot screws out and I was curious about people's opinions - do you think an ultrasonic cleaner from Amazon or something is necessary to clean all the carb bodies, it is carb cleaner spray enough? I got a rebuild kit off eBay so only the body really would benefit from such a cleaning. I also noticed that one of the posts holding my slide pin for my floats in carb #2 seems to be eaten away, moving even with a slight push of the finger! How bad is this? All I can think of to repair besides getting a whole new carburetor would be to weld it. Curious what others think. I will attach a picture. Thanks all.

 

@Isaac4312 First off...Welcome! Yes, you can clean your carburetors and get them just as good as anybody else. The primary ingredient is patience. Our very own @hogfiddles is the resident Carb Whisperer and he does not use an ultrasonic cleaner at all. There are several threads about the carbs he has done.
The carb you have with the eaten up post..... yeah that really needs to be fixed. If you have a REALLY good welder he might be able to repair that but the issue is going to be keeping the pivot point in alignment with the other post. Some might say you can reinforce it with J-B Weld and there may very well be a formulation that will be stable in the gas environment of the float bowl but I am not familiar with one. You would most likely be better off with another carb body.
To do the cleaning you will need some really fine wire, most use a strand of guitar string wire, and some brushes small enough to go through the ports. Have you read the Church of Clean thread here?
Good luck and have fun! You can do this.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to explore all options first, but would the only way to get a new "carb body" just be buying a whole new carburetor? Is there somewhere online besides eBay that would have them, or an aftermarket replacement, or would keeping an eye out for a parts bike be my best bet?

 

@Isaac4312, You can post a "wanted" ad here in the for sale section to start with. And check with Len Chacal at XJ4EVER (his logo is in the upper right corner of every page here) as he might have the carb body you need. Hogfiddles might also have one but there are quite a few folks here who have a stash of parts and will share.
In the previous post I forgot to mention for you to be very aware that the ebay carb kits are pretty bogus. A lot of their parts will not fit or work or are just plain wrong for the application they are listed for. Again, getting what you need from XJ4EVER is a better idea. It will likely cost a bit more initially but it will be the right part for the job and Len is the best fellow to do business with you will meet anywhere, not just motorcycle parts. He also has more XJ knowledge that the rest of us combined. Explore his section for educational reading not just parts.

 

Cleaning carbs as a newbie is intimidating, if I had to do it again, I'd absolutely go the ultrasonic route but then blast every hole with carb cleaner. I was able to get by with dawn and just ultrasonic but there could be residue left over that isn't super obvious until the carbs are on the bike, and these carbs are ANNOYING to take on/off the bike, especially if you aren't replacing the airbox boots or intake boots from their old, hard, versions

otherwise they're "fine", just irritatingly tedious.