Super gummed up VF500 F carbs. Advice badly needed.

The non-running '86 VF500 F That I bought (which has good compression on all 4 cylinders) now has good spark on all cylinders and properly working brakes and clutch so I've moved on to the carbs. I got them off without too much trouble, and they looked pretty OK externally, but what a shock when I took off a float bowl.
They are so gummy that the float needles won't come out of the seats. I've soaked the needle and seat in carb and choke cleaner for 15 minutes and even tried 120 # of compressed air on the needle seat inlet with no luck.
I have an ultra sonic cleaner that I can try, but thought that might damage the viton tip of the needle.
As I've mentioned before, funds are limited, so sending them out is a last resort. I am concerned though, that with gumming this bad, passages in the carb bodies are plugged so that even if I get the jets cleaned and the needles and seats working OK, things like the enrichment circuit for the choke won't work.
I'm hoping that someone has salvaged a set of carbs this gummy and can advise me, but for now think I may hold the dubious record of having the most gummed up VFR carbs ever recorded. Help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Forget the carb cleaner stuff. Soak them in 100% simple green for about 2-4hrs. Keep checking on them because simple green can burn the aluminum. Takes the coating off and dulls finish. Some have used pinesole the same way.

Wear rubber gloves when working with simple green. It will clean them. You may have to get some really fine wire .020" or so for some of the smaller holes if they are really plugged. You need a good 80-100 lbs of air too. To test all circuits to make sure they are open. Small brass brushes help, even old tooth brushes.

Those are not the worst I've seen/worked on. So you have a chance.

 

I dont think I have ever disagreed with the Grey before as his knowledge and advise are very sound.......but.....you may want to bail on that mess and start over with a set that has a better chance of working correctly. You may be able to save those but the pictures do not look good. That is a disaster.

 

Well that would explain the low compression numbers--restricted flow instead of wide open throttle.

i've cleaned plenty of carbs that looked like that. Soak them in pine sol for 24 hours and they will be easier to clean plus gets rid of grime and smells good. Throw the whole rack in a bin full-- it won't harm rubber, brass or aluminum.

Spray them off with a garden hose, then blow em off with compressed air. Now you will be able to start pulling out the jets and get to the real cleaning. Get 4 cat food or tuna cans and put the parts for each carb in its numbered can, so you know where they came from and where they need to go back.

It will be a lot of elbow grease as the lover of squirrels has mentioned below. And i like berryman's carb spray, never tried simple green but i may give it a try this spring when the calls start coming in...

 

Soaks, sprays, dips in furnature polish are only good for softening the surface grit. The real weapons of carb war are not chemical, but toothbrushes, green Scotchbright, #1000 paper, rags, toothpicks, Q-tips, wire brushes, lubes, thin wires, lotsa beer and pipe cleaners, etc.--battles fought BY HAND-- the finishing steps of any proppa carb work.

Dunk & go........ not quite.

VF500 guy, Dr. Jay, those are on the tougher end of the range but cleanable with enough work. If you have a VFR750 to ride while those are soaking, not bad at all, but leave that little toy at home resting.

 

Many thanks to all, especially Grey. I soaked the needles and seats in simple green for 30 minutes and they came right out in perfect condition! The simple green works way better than the carb cleaner. 12 minutes in a 50% water simple green solution in my Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner even got the varnished solid idle jets open and spotless. I also held the metal arm of the float in the US cleaner without immersing the floats for 2 minutes and they came out shiny and spotless with all the varnish from the inside of the pivot tube gone. Even the tiny spring loaded pins in the float needles move freely after a few minutes in the US cleaner.
I am sure there will be other challenges in getting these carbs fully functional, but I'm very encouraged by the progress so far.
Thanks again,
Jay