SOHC four throttle shaft angst. That is today's lesson. Not every set of SOHC four carbs needs this shaft removed, but many times it in fact does have to come out. Whether the shaft is getting replated, or the steady plate has issues that require repair or replacement, often enough the shaft will have to be extracted. This is how to do that the right way.

This is all too common on SOHC four carburetors. Shouldn't be though. See the chewed-up locating groove in this shaft?

Someone tried to remove the shaft without first drilling out the locating pin. On the earliest 750s the pin is instead a screw hidden under a cover. But either way, it has to be removed before the shaft will come out without damage.

Hammer marks. Beat on the carburetors, that will teach them!

The locating pin is carefully drilled out. That is steel embedded in cast aluminum, so it can be tricky.

In the best of cases the drill bit will grip the pin and allow you to pull it out. Nice!

Then the hole is drilled and tapped for a suitably-sized screw.

The screw has to be machined with a necked-down tip so it will do the same job as the steel pin did originally.