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Just removing the air cleaner wouldn't get the carb terminally dirty unless your engine is really, really filthy (or if you attempted the job in the Kalahari Desert in the middle of a sandstorm.) Usually a carb cleaning is needed only to get rid of the type of muck that builds up over long-time usage... and it takes a lot of that muck to make the engine run "really rough."
So, I suspect that the reason your engine suddenly started to run rough isn't that you took the air cleaner off and let gunk fall into the carb... it might be something else. Besides, if you've never done carb cleaning before, your chances of screwing things up worse are MUCH larger than your chances of improving the situation -- so I'd suggest checking a few other easy things first before you conclude that the carb needs cleaning.
1) Is there a chance that when removing the air cleaner or replacing the thermostat, you pulled loose any of the wires? A loose plug wire or coil wire definitely will cause an engine to run rough.
2) Might one of the vacuum hoses have got pulled loose? This also will definitely cause rough running. If your car is one of the newer ones that has a "ported vacuum switch" (PVS) on or near the thermostat housing, you would have encountered some vacuum hoses when changing the thermostat.
3) How about a kink in the fuel line? It runs up the front of the engine very near the thermostat housing.
I'd suggest checking into these kinds of things, and any others that might occur to you, before concluding you need to tackle your first carb cleaning/rebuild. Just take a careful look all around the engine compartment for anything that doesn't look right.
If you do decide you need or want to do the carb anyway:
-- "Cleaning" can be done by getting a can of carb-cleaning spray and following the directions. This can be done with the carb in place and doesn't require removing anything except the air cleaner. In my experience, though, it may make your carb look a little shinier, but doesn't really correct any problems.
-- If the carb is gummed up, or if dirt has gotten inside and clogged one of the tiny passages in it, then you don't just need a cleaning; you need a rebuild. You can do this yourself, and it's a bit of a rite of passage (there's always a first time, even for experts) but it's not something you want to do if you don't need to. Brief outline: Yes, you need to remove the carb from the engine, which is a process in itself. You also need a "rebuild kit," a plastic bag of the little gaskets and parts you'll need to replace. And you'll need a large, very clean place to work, which rules out doing it in the garage if your garage looks anything like mine! It's a good job for doing on the kitchen table (spread out some newspapers first) if you've got a tolerant significant other.
Getting the carb apart won't require any tools other than a couple of screwdrivers and maybe a blunt knife to pry the top part off the bottom. You'll be using a solvent to clean the parts, so make sure you have extremely good ventilation where you do this step. And a shop manual would be a good thing to have -- the rebuild kit probably will include an instruction sheet, but often the illustrations are so small that they don't help you much.
My own secret tip is to get an ear syringe, one of those rubber bulbs sold at drugstores for cleaning out babies' ears. You use this to blow dirt and crud out of the tiny passages in the carburetor. Just press the rubber tip against an opening to get a good seal and squeeze the bulb a couple of times. It's also handy for sucking surplus gas out of the carburetor float bowl, so you make less of a mess when you dismantle it.
Again, this isn't something you want to do without a really good reason. And if it goes wrong, you may have a really hard time diagnosing what mistake you made! If all else fails you can chuck it and buy a new Weber 34ICH from West of Sweden SAAB to replace it, but that's an expensive plan B. Good luck...
posted by 204.76.11...
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