When I cleaned mine I opened it up and removed all the plastic components. I think the float was plastic. You do not want to soak plastic in carb cleaner. There was a light rubber type coating on the throttle plate shaft that I did not notice and it dissolved. I put it back together and it ran fine so not sure what the rubber coating was for unless it was to prevent air leaks around the shaft ends. Once I let it soak for a few hours I used a can of aerosol carburetor cleaner to clean away the carburetor dip and followed that with a good drying with compressed air with special emphasis on the ports and jets. I have had no problems since then with it and that was about a year and a half ago. You have to remove the carburetor to replace it anyway so you might as well try cleaning it first. All my gaskets were reusable. I put a light coat of grease on the carb/manifold gasket before I reset the carb.