Removing the carbs with the air box housing attached?
 

I'm not much of a mechanic. My Hawk is pretty pristine with very low miles, but just started leaking a bit of coolant. It looks to me like it is leaking from the hose going to the front cylinder, which is under the carbs and seems impossible to get to without removing the carbs. The Honda manual says to remove the carbs with the air box housing attached if you are not servicing the carbs, to prevent the threaded holes in the carbs from being damaged. Does anyone have knowledge they can share on how to do this? I am not finding anything in the manual or on my web searches.

I always remove the air filter housing whenever removing the carbs(19 times to date)

The screws that hold it to the top of the carbs have very fine threads, if you are careful you won't have a problem.

Be sure to put some rags in the carbs in case you drop a screw.

When you refit the base of the airfilter housing use some loctite on the screws, just a precaution. Make sure you use a good quality screwdriver that fits the heads of the screws properly otherwise you will burr the heads and they will be hard to get out the next time.

Good luck

I wouldn't bother with messing around taking the carbs off with the airbox still attached. Once the tank is up (or off), it is very easy to remove everything and take the carbs off. Be very careful of the black plastic nuts that hold the enricher needle to the carbs. Some tend to be quite brittle and crack. If you accidentally break one, search for the brass ones Jack Flash makes.