carb cleaning

[bikerphil]

I do not want to have to take the bodies apart form eachother. I have them completely disassembled. Also dont want to have to take off the choke assembly and the butterflys. What should I do?

I'd suggest cleaning them the usual way, with cans of carb cleaner and compressed air (if available). Might have to do it more than once unless you do a super thorough job the first time. Berrymans carb cleaner is the good, strong stuff (Chemtool B-12). Never done the boiling method over here.

[latexeses]

Randy,
I'm with you. I never even thought about cleaning the carbs without getting them separated.

Kirmit,
If you are afraid of getting them mixed up just put a witness mark on them for 1,2,3,4 and put them back together in that order. I just cleaned them one at a time and put them back together as they were clean. They are no more ready to run either way you clean them. You just get to more of the carb with them apart.
Don't forget about all the gunk in the enricher valves on each carb. On my carbs they were very dirty. I kept all the parts in the little "Glad" refridgerator storage boxes for leftovers. Easy, together, disposable.

Rodger

[DGXSER]

Hey Kirmit,

Based upon that picture, you have a bit of tear down left to do like remove the floats so you can get to the float valve and its seat, and remove the emulsion tube. Did you remove the pilot air jets form the intake bell?

Like others have stated, lots of folks clean them together and just use lots of spray carb cleaner on the bodies. When I cleaned mine, I took all the jets and the pieces and sprayed carb cleaner into a container then dropped the parts in and covered and let them soak a while. HTH

[kirmit77]

well.....

The thing about taking them off from a set is... well IDK how to do it without breaking the darn things. Everything looks like it has a rod in it that has been pressed some how. I have all the diaphrams and jets out and separated into little baggies and everything is numbered. I just dont want to have to take out the pins and mess up something expensive like say the floats.
I bought a container of that chemtool stuff and was planning on just soaking the BOTTOM parts of the bodies.

One question though.... To separate everything, do you have to take out the butterflies and those seals everyone says soaking will eat up????

Anything will help at this time.
Thanks again

[fredintoon]

I do not want to have to take the bodies apart form each other. I have them completely disassembled. Also don't want to have to take off the choke assembly and the butterflys.
What should I do?

Hi Austin,
you gotta remove the enrichener plugs to clean down the passages behind them and to do that you have to remove the enrichener pull-rod.
You are right to leave the butterflys because they are real difficult to reassemble correctly and you will have to wreck the little screws that hold them and buy new ones. Leaving the butterflys means leaving the butterfly shaft seals in place which means you can't immerse the carb bodies in a soak-style carb cleaner because the cleaner will attack the seals.

[kirmit77]

good to know

Hi Austin,
you gotta remove the enrichener plugs to clean down the passages behind them and to do that you have to remove the enrichener pull-rod.
You are right to leave the butterflys because they are real difficult to reassemble correctly and you will have to wreck the little screws that hold them and buy new ones. Leaving the butterflys means leaving the butterfly shaft seals in place which means you can't immerse the carb bodies in a soak-style carb cleaner because the cleaner will attack the seals.

okay here is my other question, what is the best way to get the emulsion tubes out??? They are sitting vertical in the middle of the carbs right?????

[petejw]

hey Austin,
To remove the emulsion tubes,
remove the top slide assy, remove the main jet and washer, from the main jet side, i use a phillips head screw driver others use a wooden dowel, slightly tap the emulsion tube and it should fall out. fyi the emulsion tubes only slide in 1 way, theres a pin on the carby and a slot in the emulsion tube.
hope this helps.

hey Fred,
ive removed many butterfly screws on carbys b4, i use a perfect fitting phillips head screw driver, i tap the driver with a hammer to help crack the seal and then a quarter-half turn at a time unscrew the screw then tighten, as you would using a tap and die set. I then reuse the old screws with locktite, ive never had a problem removing butterflys this way.

[kirmit77]

sweeeet

hey Austin,
To remove the emulsion tubes,
remove the top slide assy, remove the main jet and washer, from the main jet side, i use a phillips head screw driver others use a wooden dowel, slightly tap the emulsion tube and it should fall out. fyi the emulsion tubes only slide in 1 way, theres a pin on the carby and a slot in the emulsion tube.
hope this helps.

Thanks for that I will definitely be trying it tomorrow. Hope it works out!

[latexeses]

kirmit77,

If you are worried about the rod that runs along the face of the carbs, don't.

Loosen all of the little screws on the shaft at each enricher "valve". BEWARE, there is a small ball bearing and spring at each end of the the shaft that is seated in the carb body. They are the detent balls that index the shaft for the enrichers when you start the beast up. Carefully remove the shaft from left to right. Put a hand towel over the carbs, if you want, when you slowly pull the shaft out. I did, only to find out that the spring and the ball at the #4 carb was missing. After that it was a snap. The ball bearing is small. Don't underestimate how fast that spring can move that thing.

Once that is done it is just a matter of taking the carbs apart one at a time.

Truthfully, I was scarred spitless the first one I took apart. I envisioned all sorts of trouble and strife. By the time I got to the third carb it was the easiest thing I had done so far.

There is the part about my bike not being completely together, but that is different story....

Don't discount a good manual...Clymer or Haynes... They have blowups of all the parts of the carbs. E-bay or Amazon. I have both. Good money spent.

Rodger

[DGXSER]

Maybe this is just me, but I would not take the carbs down this far and not remove the float needle valve and seat and replace them. They are the only items that really wear out in these carbs. They are also the most likely to cause you toruble.

I understand your apprehension to breaking something like the tower. If you spray the pins with PB Blaster or the like and use the tip about using side cutters you should be fine. My carbs were not very dirty and I used a carpenters awl to push the pis out with VERY light taps on the end from a small hammer. Nothing broken on mine. I would use the wooden dowel to push out the emulsion tube just because I feel the wood will get hurt before the tube and wooden dowel is cheap. Again though, use a good penetrating fluid on everythign before you try to pull it, and for jets and screws make sure your screwdriver fits the slot VERY tight!! Oh, and WD40 does not qualify as a penetrating oil. HTH