Choke slide

[adam79]

My choke control (the little tab...or whats left of it) takes a lot of effort to push and pull. It's all gunked up somewhere (I assume). It does not slide smoothly at all. In fact, there was so much resistance that it broke the tab. Now, my choke WORKS just fine, as in, once it is engaged it works properly. Ive sprayed and wiped the slide (shaft) that opens and closes the choke circuit on each carb, but it it has not done anything to help. What should I do?

[ELDR]

I recently cleaned the carbs and during the process removed the “choke” enricher slide and then first cleaned with steel wool and then polished with 1000 grit emery cloth. The slide can be removed by loosening the 4 screws that hold the fingers that engage the individual enricheners and by removing the lever. Its slides out the lever side. The slide has indents for proper realignment of the fingers that the screws tighten into when re-installing the slide. It also has 3 indents that use a small spring loaded ball bearing to hold it in the closed, mid and open position. That ball bearing is located near the lever on carb 1. Be careful when you pull the slide out to keep track of the ball bearing and spring.

If you have the carbs off, the pistons inside the enricher can also be removed and cleaned up. They are brass so a very small about of metal polish works well.

Good Luck

[Mississippi]

Adam, You will need to remove the carbs so you can remove the shaft that pulls each of the enrichment valves. Then you can remove the valves one at a time and clean the valves and the valve bores. I have used a gun bore brush and spray carb cleaner to get the bores clean and I polish the brass valves with fine sandpaper. Oil them and reassemble. This can be done by removing the gas tank with the carbs still mounted but it is much easier with the carbs removed. Good luck.

[fredintoon]

Use a tray

Hi Adam,
what those others said. You need to tear the carbs down to clean out the four enricheners and their operating mechanism. You may as well clean the rest of the carbs jets, passages etc. while you are at it.
Put the entire carb rack in a big metal tray before you start. Otherwise little parts, including the tiny ball & spring that works with the enrichener operating rod detent, can fall on the floor and disappear into the 4th dimension.

[tarzan]

After I rebuilt mine I had to pull that rod again and put a little grease in the hole with the detent ball.Without the grease mine is hard to move that rod.

[adam79]

I'll take a look when I get home. I just cleaned/rebuilt the carbs with a friend recently, and I remember how much of a pain it was to get them back on. I hope If all it takes is more time, than I'd rather keep the carbs on the bike. Thanx all.

[fredintoon]

Choosing your pain.

I'll take a look when I get home. I just cleaned/rebuilt the carbs with a friend recently, and I remember how much of a pain it was to get them back on. I hope If all it takes is more time, than I'd rather keep the carbs on the bike. Thanx all.

Hi Adam,
Removing the carb rack, especially if you still have the stock airbox, is a pain in the arse but with practice it gets easier to do.
Removing the enrichener operating rod in situ to have that little ball and spring fall down to bounce off the transmission casting and then go god knows where and disappear forever will be a worse pain in the arse every time you do it.

[CatatonicBug]

Practice does make it easier. One suggestion I have is to NOT remove the top of the airbox. Just loosen the screws that hold it in. Also, a squirt of WD/40 on the inside of each of the rubber sleeves will allow the carbs to slide in much easier.

[Ken Talbot]

little parts, including the tiny ball & spring that works with the enrichener operating rod detent, can fall on the floor and disappear into the 4th dimension.

This little tip bears repeating. The spring will shoot the little ball well clear of its hole the second you draw the actuating rod past it. It is small and light, and you probably won't hear it land. Watch for it!

BTDT

[DGXSER]

Hmmmm....interesting. I took my rod out, most fo the way I think when I was getting my busted mixture screw out. Never seen or heard any ball or spring. Is it associated with the rod? or the actual enricher on the carb? Maybe I am missing something and do not even know it?

Found my manual and the schematic. I wonder if that is still on the late model carbs. The choke works fine.

[Larrym]

My original carb set was missing the detent ball and so I had to hold the lever during the warm up. I found that the spring was still in place and I replaced the missing ball with a small ball bearing from a bicycle pedal. Working so far...

After pulling the enrichner bars on three sets of carbs I found that the small set screws attaching the individual levers to the bar can be difficult to loosen/remove unless they were sprayed/soaked with a good penetrant. Haven't found replacements for the ones which were "boogered" during removal.

[ELDR]

The little ball, about the size of a BB, but not exactly, is part 10 and 11 on the Yamaha OEM Parts Web Page Carb diagram (at least on the XS1100G Carbs). It located on Carb 1 at the first hole or sleeve the rod passes though. The sleeve also has a hole in the side of it to load the spring and ball. The spring might be able to be fabricated from a ball point pen spring.

[TADracer]

Another little tip

The rod is sliding through the small bores in all four carbs at once. If they are just alittle bit out of alignment the rod will be hard to move.

With the carb rack off, loosen the screws that hold the carb bodies to the angle support. Insert only the rod and then tighten all carbs to the angle support and make sure that the rod moves easily. Then remove the rod and reinstall all the balls, springs and fingers.

If it still binds then it is one or all of the enrichener valves sticking.