CARBS!!! Now what to do?

[James England]

Yuk! Filthy.

Use wire snips under the flat face of those float pins. Put the jaws under and just tighten your grip. This usually gets the pins loose. Take care, the legs can snap if you exert sideways force on them. Once the wire snips get things moving, rotate the pin to and fro to encourage it to come out.

The float needle seats have small, hemispherical filters. These should be cleaned. You can still buy them new, by the way.

[crazy steve]

I saw an ultra sonic cleaner at harbor freight, you think that would work?

The HF ultrasonic cleaner works decently, and is real good for cleaning rubber bits or parts that have rubber on them (like the slides/diaphrams). I use a straight fill of simple green in mine, then thoroughly wash the parts in hot water to get that off...

[DGXSER]

Since no one else has said it, but it is in the carb cleaning thread, spray the living crap out of those parts with carb cleaner and or some type of penetrating oil, not WD40, penetrating oil. It will make a huge difference in getting all of those jets out of there.

[RJFort]

thanks guys. I dropped them in a tote full of pine sol for now to try to loosen up some of that gunk, and to try to get the smell off. Is in the basement and stinking up the house. no garage, . The work room shares space with the laundry room, haha. we are gonna smell like mechanics for a bit i guess, haha. just pouring the pine sol helped a bit. once I rinse them thoroughly I will continue to disassemble them and double check their cleanliness. Thanks for all your help so far guys. I have been referencing the carb threads too. I just wanted some advice, instead of just reading stuff that was there too. I know we dont actually speak and I have to READ what you say, haha, but still makes a difference. Thanks a bunch.

[Schming]

thanks guys. I dropped them in a tote full of pine sol for now to try to loosen up some of that gunk, and to try to get the smell off. Is in the basement and stinking up the house. no garage, . The work room shares space with the laundry room, haha. we are gonna smell like mechanics for a bit i guess, haha. just pouring the pine sol helped a bit. once I rinse them thoroughly I will continue to disassemble them and double check their cleanliness. Thanks for all your help so far guys. I have been referencing the carb threads too. I just wanted some advice, instead of just reading stuff that was there too. I know we dont actually speak and I have to READ what you say, haha, but still makes a difference. Thanks a bunch.

After a day in the pine-sol, rinse them in hot water and use compressed air to dry the water up. Then get yourself some Berrymans B-12 carb cleaner and flush all passages out followed by compressed air. Wear safety glasses. Don't forget the passage in the float bowl.

[kwats]

While it's apart, I suggest taking one of the vacuum chamber and float bowl screws down to your local nuts and bolts joints like Fastenal and getting some allen head bolts. I have a set of carbs that the PO used an impact driver on with 2 broken vacuum chamber tabs. You gotta be careful pounding on aluminum.

[natemoen]

Don't be afraid to use some heat as well. Warm up the float pin posts as you work the pin to help it slide out. Also heat up the jet towes to help get some fluid down there before you try unscrewing them.

I use a little kitchen butane torch and it has a nice fine flame point that works perfect.

[foreda]

Impact screwdriver

This is the first tool I bought in the 70's when I started working on bikes. Its a must for a DIYER!
You may want to go down to your local Oreilly's and get a gallon of Berrymans Chem dip. It comes with a basket and is ideal for cleaning small parts. If you have brass floats you may want to leak test them before putting everything back together.

[tcoop]

+1 on the Impact screwdriver.

I just cleaned a set of carbs last night that looked just like the ones in the pictures. I soaked the bank in pin sol and all the metal bits I soaked in carb chem cleaner only problem I had is one of my floats…sank. Luckily I had an extra bank of carbs and used the float out of it. Just make sure every passage way is clear or you will be back in them soon.

On a side note, as I was taking the octy apart I found all kinds of bugs in the hoses; weevils, spiders and a few things that I did not know what they were. They were totaly pluged up.

[Aches n Pains]

Those actually look pretty nice. All the float posts are intact and the diaphragms and floats look decent from this distance.

I think a Pinesol bath would do a great job. Leave them overnight and shake the bath a few times just to stir things up. I would separate the carbs and remove the enricher bits so that the rubber is not in the Pinesol.

Can't work on an old cycle without an impact wrench so get one. Not very expensive.

Get yourself a high E metal guitar string to clean out all the orifices in the jets.

Be sure to take out the emulsion tubes before you do the soak - that's what you see in the center of your picture looking down the dirtiest carb in the bunch.

I would also invest in a set of long nose snap ring pliers to remove the C-clip (Motion Pro 08-0279) that holds the carb needle in the slide. Almost impossible without it and not very expensive.

I have found the following PDF file to be about the best resource for cleaning Mikuni carbs. I found it on a Suzuki forum but it covers Mikuni carbs that work exactly like yours.

http://www.mtsac.edu/~cliff/storage/gs/Mikuni_BS-CV_Carburetor_Rebuild_Tutorial.pdf

If it were me I would also use this time to replace the Phillips head bolts with stainless Allen heads. I get mine from McMaster Carr and always but more than I need.

You are correct in thinking you want to be able to do this job yourself. With a little patience it will keep your ride running for a long time.

Also, remember the rule of 3. On a new (to you) set of carbs you usually have to clean and remount them three times before everything is right.

Have fun and good luck.

Aches n Pains.

[DAVINCI]

Also, remember the rule of 3. On a new (to you) set of carbs you usually have to clean and remount them three times before everything is right.

Another one for the Urban Myth file.

[TopCatGr58]

Regrettably, the "Triple Clean" process comes from newbies that don't take the carbs down as far as they need to the first time, and often the second time getting all of the fine passages cleaned, and so they finally listen to us and perform the proper complete teardown for the 3rd time.

If a person/newbie is thorough enough the first time, then that's all they'll need to do to get them clean enough to run right. But folks that aren't familiar with carbs often miss some passages or parts. YMMV!
T.C.

[mack]

Don't forget

to clean both sets of T's while everything is a part. We can get caught up with the carb bodies and forget the other stuff. And becareful with the small ball bearings and springs. The tend to go missing really easily, really quickly. I would suggest taking them apart over a tray of some sort, i use a tote box lid with a towel in the bottom.

[RJFort]

just ordered http://www.ebay.com/itm/1979-XS1100-...#ht_500wt_1156.

Figured enough of you vouched for the quality.

I have a question about the set screws that hold the choke bar. I can't seem to get them loose. Any ideas? I wont dare use the impact screwdriver there, and they sat with penetating oil on the for more than a day and still can not get them loose. if I have to totally "screw" them up to get them out do you think I should be able to find replacements? I bought all the other screws in allen wrench screws. This is a slow process right now as I do not want to damage anything as I am a total NEWB at this.

meant to post this here originally, but put it in another thread I started, referring to the kits. Sorry for the redundancy. Just mind is full of carbs all the time, lol, even dream about them.

[BA80]

Try a little heat RJ. Propane torch should do.