Yesterday I was in disassembly mode with a client's carburetors and found the scene shown below inside #1's float bowl, and only #1 — the other carbs were dry and relatively clean. When I see that black goo coating the jets I know I'm in for a cleaning challenge. In this case it was the pilot and "choke" circuits. The arrow is pointing to the choke jet, which is fixed in place, adding another layer of difficulty when cleaning.
(Below) When the pilot screw was removed I found this sticky mess on the tip (left photo). This tells me that the passages serving the pilot circuit are full of this stuff and surely clogged. Fortunately, this goo hasn't been here long and cleaned up with aerosol brake cleaner and a scrub pad (right photo). After the better part of an hour in the ultrasonic cleaner the passages eventually cleared with tiny wire probes into the jet and several blasts of 100psi compressed air followed by repeated flushings with brake cleaner. In severe cases clearing internal passages of this varnished gasoline can be very difficult, and therefore time consuming. In this case, everything eventually cleared and I'm able to move forward with assembly.
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