I don't know why everyone idolises those metal carbies. They're fiddly AF and complicated compared to the G4 which is dead easy to rebuild in comparison.
How ironic it's a plastic part that's their weakness.
I guess for me I understand how those old carbies work and find them easy to tinker with now that I've got the mechanics sorted out in my head. The G4 is a totally foreign animal to me and I've tried to wrap my head around it but have a lot of trouble understanding how they work. From what I have heard, the G4 parts can also wear out and cause problems. One of my older G3 carbs (perhaps a G2??) is almost all metal except for a small piece of plastic beneath the all metal flag.
Another part that frequently goes AWOL on those old carbies is the clip or clamp that holds the idle gears together. I have come up with a simple solution. Get the smallest fold-back binder clip you can find, remove the wire folds, cut the clip off widthways by about a third its length. Use a screwdriver or needle nose pliers to clamp this over the gears. Finger clips might also do the trick.
