Carb Cleaning

[Underdog]

Trying to decide how far I should go into these carbs. I have the bike pretty well tore down for brake overhaul, new tires and paintwork. Pulled the exhaust and carb stack so I can detail the engine. The carbs have a light brown coat of stinky varnish in them but the bike seemed to run pretty good although I've never had it on the road yet because of the brakes. After some fresh gas & plugs it would idle well at around 1200 and the throttle responce seemed good. No gas leaks into air box. It did sound pretty rough until warmed up though.(several minutes) Also, the far right exhaust tube has turned a lighter shade like it's been hotter than the rest at some point. It still has the factory brass plugs over the idle screws so they would have to be removed I suppose. So...Should I just blow some spray carb cleaner through the passages and clean out the bowls or do I tear them completely apart with new carb kits? I have a pail of carb cleaner but understand about the shaft seals. Can these be removed and reinstalled? If it was a car carb, I'd definetly dunk it . BTW it's a 1980 LG.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there Dog,

Why put off the inevitable? Yes, it may sound like it runs okay on the center stand, but put it on the road with a load, and it may run like a dog! Until you tear into it, you won't know the condition of the floats, the needle valves, the filter screen, the vacuum rubber diaphragms, etc.! You'll probably be surprised at the amount of varnish and gunk you'll find in the bowls! And you'll be able to verify your floats are all even!

Also, you can do a decent cleaning without necessarily having to actually dunk it entirely into the cleaner bath. Just removing the float bowls, pulling out the jets(main and idle), the emulsion/ aerator tube, and such, the floats(careful with the pins!), and needle valves(if full metal, then you can soak them all, if rubber tipped, just a quick bath), soak the rest of the parts, scrub with old toothbrush, spray with air and reinsert. Also, you don't have to separate the bank of carbs, so you can maintain some semblance of synch! Yes, removing the brass caps and pulling the pilot screws out to ensure ability to clean the pilot/idle circuit would be best, but you could do the rest and not the brass caps. You'll just want to find the tube that leads to the pilot holes and spray some cleaner thru it to at least ensure it's flowing thru!?

I've torn mine down, and went back with the same bowl gaskets, and all innards, just cleaned up. I got replacement rubber 0-rings for the valve seats from the hardware store. Poor man's carb job, but worked and no leaks from the bowls, either!!!
T.C.

[skids]

Leave them attached to the rack, remove all rubber, except for the butterfly shaft seals, and do a spray job. Here is the way I do it for a maintenance cleaning:

http://home.earthlink.net/~sidskids/carbs/spraycarb.htm

[Underdog]

Thanks guys. That's what I was hopeing would be sufficient. Although I work on cars for a liveing and consider myself mechanicaly inclined, I'm still rather intimidated by the idea of separateing the carbs with all that linkage & stuff. Great instructions Skids. I won't have a prob with #27. My taste for beer has given my a pretty handy "workbench"

[Underdog]

Another thought

Well, Partsnmore has the float chamber gaskets on BO and the Yamaha dealer is sort of pricey. Called a local indy dealer and they gave me about the same price 21.95 a kit for K&L kits that they been selling for on ebay. Get them in 2days plus no shipping. Probably have more stuff in them than I need but I hate geting into something and haveing to wait for parts.
My actual point is that we get so caught up in the internet that we sometimes forget the sources right in our backyard. Probably good idea to support these guys cause they sure come in handy when you need it right now or want some free advise.