eBay Carbs

[natemoen]

Ok, who out bid me?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...torefresh=true

[trdriver71]

I am innocent!!! Looked to be a good set of carbs. Maybe you will get lucky and find another good set.

[SFerinTEXAS]

Not me either. But since those are clearly 80 or 81 carbs, I wouldn't have tried . Have a preference for early style.

[Rasputin]

Probably the same guy that bid at the last moment on this one and beat me out by 2 seconds.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEDWX%3AIT

[natemoen]

Probably the same guy that bid at the last moment on this one and beat me out by 2 seconds.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...K%3AMEDWX%3AIT

What a prick!

[SFerinTEXAS]

I thinks the people sniping carbs are the same ones that make them look real pretty, like that matters, and sell them for 350 bucks. if no one bought them for that price it might stop that for the most part.

[81xsproject]

I thinks the people sniping carbs are the same ones that make them look real pretty, like that matters, and sell them for 350 bucks. if no one bought them for that price it might stop that for the most part.

$350's a steal if they run like they should. A few years back I could pick them up for 60-80 bucks on ebay, USC them, tune and on bike test, and sell them in the $400+ range. But, now there are guys that are will to do serious amounts of work for very little profit (like the guy that sells them for $350) You almost never see a used dirty set go for under $100 anymore. Add $50 in parts if NOTHING is screwed up on your mystery set of eBay carbs (this almost never happens). Then the guy takes them COMPLETELY apart, USC's them, then bead-blasts them, then POLISHES them, then clear coats them, then reassembles them, then takes pic, packages them and ships them... all to make a couple hundred bucks? Granted he does carbs from lots of other bikes (which makes me a little suspicious of how much he knows about all the little nuances of XS carbs... like the bastard 80 carbs with the rubber plugs and brass floats) so maybe he does enough volume to make it worth that much time, work, equipment, and cost to sit around and wait for $200 bucks. It is a lot more enjoyable and worth while to do the work to someone's carbs for them. You get to meet people and talk about XS's, and see pics of their bikes, talk about other issues they might be having, etc., etc.,. Plus you don't end up losing money on sets of lemons with already broken float posts, stripped out jets, slide diaphragms with holes, or the set that some ham-fisted SOB managed to strip out and/or break off every screw on the damn things. Just my 2 cents having done that for a couple years.

As for snipping... It has been the eBay way for as long as ebay has been around. I have a couple different views about it; First, it doesn't change the fact that the person with the highest bid will win. Regular bidding drives the price up where as if everyone snipped it would be like a silent auction. If you want something cheaper, don't bid until the end (snipe). If you really want to win bid as high as YOU are willing to pay. Secondly, you can't win if you don't play the game. But, play smart. Sniping software and websites are cheap, easy, and abundant. If you really want to win stuff on eBay at good prices, it is the only way to go. You put in your highest bid and forget about it. I guess that brings me to a total of 4 cents now.

[jetmechmarty]

I just went through fixing and getting my carbs fixed. In retrospect, I would have been far better off had I paid even $500 for a near perfect set. Mine are now correct, but not show finished and getting there was a headache. It might make for a good long story if anyone cared to listen to it.

On eBay, I always snipe...always. I use a service I pay for. As a seller, I have NEVER been stiffed by a bidder who sniped. Snipers are out there. Count on it, and play along.

[natemoen]

On eBay, I always snipe...always. I use a service I pay for. As a seller, I have NEVER been stiffed by a bidder who sniped. Snipers are out there. Count on it, and play along.

Oh yeah its totally to be expected! I am fine with it, I just like to mess with people too

[James England]

Rebuilt carbs

Well... last year I bought a set of 'refurbished' carbs from a specialist place in the US which advertises their services on eBay and which has been mentioned on this forum at least once. I couldn't find a place here in the UK. I thought about doing it myself but thought it might be better to let an 'expert' do it, especially considering the total cost of jets, diaphragms etc. I also wanted to be sure they were thoroughly clean and looked great and I didn't have enough confidence. So I paid about $400, then shipping to the UK. Four weeks later, no carbs. They eventually turned up and I have to say that I have never seen such a lousy job. Here's why:

*All float bowls not tightened up at all, so fuel leaks from the gaskets the minute I connected them to the fuel tank (off the bike)
*A fine, gritty feeling when opening the throttles and the butterflies stuck open at random
*Gritty feeling when opening up the chokes and then impossible to close
*Carb slides all stuck in the barrels
*Severe fuel leaks from the T-joints between carbs
*The carbs had been painted with petrol soluble paint, so it all bubbled off because of the leaks mentioned above.
* One air mixture screw completely missing



The carbs were completely and utterly unuseable and, given that the slides etc stuck open, dangerous if I had managed to get them going. When I e-mailed the place, all I got was a one-line e-mail saying "I don' t get it". I returned the carbs at my expense (about $75) and received a refund with no explanation as to how they could have sent out something like that. I ended up doing a credit card merchant chargeback to get my return shipping costs back because they just ignored my e-mails saying how I unfair I thought it was for me to pay for returning such shoddy work. I got this back via Mastercard but was, of course, still out of pocket on import duties.

I got my old carbs, stripped and cleaned them, used Georgefix kits, bought new diaphragms and put them back on the bike. It started first time and sounds and runs great. I should have done that in the first place and had more confidence in myself. The best of it is.... it's dead easy to do.

[jetmechmarty]

I ended up spending over $500 on mine. It was a major PITA, but in the end, the bike runs like it never has before.

$100...mechanic fixed, not to my liking
200...mechanic who knew how to fix them
100...had broken post welded
100...brass fuel tees
$??....assorted small parts & transportation
+ several months of aggravation.

[natemoen]

Well... last year I bought a set of 'refurbished' carbs from a specialist place in the US which advertises their services on eBay and which has been mentioned on this forum at least once. I couldn't find a place here in the UK. I thought about doing it myself but thought it might be better to let an 'expert' do it, especially considering the total cost of jets, diaphragms etc. I also wanted to be sure they were thoroughly clean and looked great and I didn't have enough confidence. So I paid about $400, then shipping to the UK. Four weeks later, no carbs. They eventually turned up and I have to say that I have never seen such a lousy job. Here's why:

*All float bowls not tightened up at all, so fuel leaks from the gaskets the minute I connected them to the fuel tank (off the bike)
*A fine, gritty feeling when opening the throttles and the butterflies stuck open at random
*Gritty feeling when opening up the chokes and then impossible to close
*Carb slides all stuck in the barrels
*Severe fuel leaks from the T-joints between carbs
*The carbs had been painted with petrol soluble paint, so it all bubbled off because of the leaks mentioned above.
* One air mixture screw completely missing



The carbs were completely and utterly unuseable and, given that the slides etc stuck open, dangerous if I had managed to get them going. When I e-mailed the place, all I got was a one-line e-mail saying "I don' t get it". I returned the carbs at my expense (about $75) and received a refund with no explanation as to how they could have sent out something like that. I ended up doing a credit card merchant chargeback to get my return shipping costs back because they just ignored my e-mails saying how I unfair I thought it was for me to pay for returning such shoddy work. I got this back via Mastercard but was, of course, still out of pocket on import duties.

I got my old carbs, stripped and cleaned them, used Georgefix kits, bought new diaphragms and put them back on the bike. It started first time and sounds and runs great. I should have done that in the first place and had more confidence in myself. The best of it is.... it's dead easy to do.

Wow gotta say that is probably one of the worst stories I have heard! Do you remember who the eBay seller/mech was so that no one else uses that person, cause that is BAD!

[James England]

Oh yes, I know who it was! I didn't want to 'out' these people gratuitously but, since this thread was about carbs and rebuilds, I thought I'd better mention it. I'll PM anyone with the name of the company if they want to know who it is. Yes, I would avoid them like the plague, I really would. They just ignored all my e-mails after a while and I got no response whatsoever.

I rebuilt a second set of carbs in exactly the same way. I removed the carbs from the bike, cleaned them and replaced the jets, diaphragms and float valves/needles in under 3 hours. Most of that was spent cleaning the body of the carbs... the rest is simple....

[81xsproject]

Well it is sad to hear my suspicions confirmed about some of these other sellers. Sorry about your bad experience, but always stoked to hear someone learning to do something better themselves.

[Cobia]

Sometimes they just need cleaning.

My bike sat unridden through the holidays, between the cold wx and family commitments, it sat for three weeks. Unfortunately, with an empty tank.
A few days ago I decided to go riding and went to the corner gas station and filled her up. I should have stopped when I realized that the gas pump was running very slow, usually an indication that they're at the bottom of their tanks, but didn't. I had never had a problem there before.
I hadn't run two blocks when the bike started spitting and sputtering in the midrange. Went back home, put some seafoam in it and rode for 15 miles and let it sit overnight. Next day rode it for another 30 or so miles, no improvement.
So, yesterday I took the carbs out dismantled them, cleaned the bodies and the jets with carb cleaner. I also use metal guitar strings to clean all the little holes in the jets (thanks for the tip Bikerphil), I've even use it to clear the enrichment circuit in the floatbowl. Then I adjusted the idle jets 1 1/2 turns out and re-installed them. Bike fired right up, nary a snort was heard.
Total time = 3 hours.
Funny thing was that the only thing I found suspect was one of the smaller holes in emulsion tube was a little clogged up, the rest looked fine. Weird because I was suspecting the #2 carb to be clogged from my reading of the spark plugs.
Fired it up this AM and all was well. Couldn't ride today on account of the rain we're still getting. Oh, well, at least we're getting much needed rain, we're in a drought situation.