also you only need to pop the front carb out of the boot you can leave coolant lines throttle cable choke cable all connected. You only need an inch or two to get to the third screw that hold the cover on.

 

Well as it's a carb thread, you know i have to comment......

First, while it is possible to shim the needles with out removing the carbs, it might be easier for you to get the diaphragms re-installed with them on the bench.

As for the shimming itself, there are two set ups you can use. The one I prefer is shimming the needles up .040" and installing a #48 pilot jet. The other option is going up .060" and stay with the #45 pilot, which works ok but not as well as the first set up IMHO.

Also when you remove the needles, there will be a thin steel washer under each needle. Remove the washer from the front carb and leave it in place on the rear. It's an HRC set up tip that does help.

Then there are the washers themselves. Some will say to run brass or whatever, I run the steel washers. My reasoning is that when I installed the HRC kit on my bike all the parts were factory Keihin as the are all part of the Honda family. Anyways the shims the Keihin supplied were steel, so I don't see why there would be any issue running them and the do seem to be more consistent in thickness.

That leaves the one step that will cause you problems until you get the hang of it. Installing the diaphragms can be a challenge but there are a couple of tricks to make things a bit easier.

First you need to find something to hold the slide part of the way open. To do this, after you remove the needle from the slide put the diaphragm in the down position and reinstall it in the carb. The find something to put in the carb throat to to stop it when the diaphragm just rests in the sealing groove. Then reassemble then slide and install it making sure the needle drops into the needle jet and use the spacer to hold it up.

Then to install the slide spring is tricky...... it is quite long. So what you do is take a long screw driver, put the spring on the shaft of the screw driver. Then put the end of the screw driver in the cap and push the spring down, holding it in with your thumb while you remove the screw driver.
Then put it into position and slide your thumb out of the way and the spring should drop into place around the needle holder. This might take a try or two until you get the hang of it.

At that point push the cap down until it seals and reinstall the 3 screws holding it. Then you need to check to make sure the diaphragm is seated properly. to do this push the slide all the way up and let it go. You should hear air being forced out as it opens and pulled back in as it closes. Also the slide should close slowly, if it just drops closed or you don't hear the air being moved (try it before you disassemble them to find out what it should sound and look like) then the diaphragm is pinched or torn and you need to pull it apart and try again.

Sorry for the long answer but hope it all goes well for you.

Cheers,
Mike