Separating carburetors from air base 85 vf500f

Hey Guys,
I have an 85 vf500f that I am trying to clean the carbs on but I cannot get the screws off that hold them to the air base for the life of me. I'm tempted to just clean the jets and leave the vacuum chambers alone because of it. I did see that there are two plastic coverings that seem to be right over the screws I need to get to but they were not coming off easy and I did not want to push it. Any advice?

Thanks,
Joe

 

When you say air base I am guessing your talking aboot the aluminum manifold that connects the air box to the carbs. You do not want to remove that from the carbs, the carbs are to be removed as a unit with that manifold in place. Disaster and a longer thread will take place if disassembled with the manifold off.

 

Thanks toe, but how do you get the covers off of the vacuum chamber then? Two of the screws are buried right underneath the manifold and are unreachable (left side of the picture).

 

Gotcha, I would consider just cleaning the jets and checking results before I took a risk on damaging the crossover tubes myself. That is just a can of worms if it goes bad if you just have clogged jets and they can be so fragile. Just my opinion.

 

Thanks toe. I was definitely leaning that way. It sounds like you have had some experiences that make me inclined to heed your advice!