Leaking Carbs

[Padre4art]

Hi - I am winter working over the 1979 XS11F I purchased. What I thought was an annoying oil leak turned out to be petcocks and carbs. I have gotten petcock repair kits. I am wondering about cleaning the bottom end of the carbs.

I am a little reluctant, because this was just done three years ago and it runs perfectly. Idles nice, runs nice, no problems anywhere in the rev range.

Questions:

1) Should I do it at all, or trust that the petcock rebuild will take care of it?

2) Should I clean and reinstall old float needle valve hardware (the bike has 722 miles on it) or replace?

3) Do I need to replace the float needle valve with OEM mikuni parts? JetsRus sells them for like $ 45 for 1 carb! Or can I use aftermarket, which is less than $ 10 per set?

Thanks for carb help - I know lotsa you guys (gals too) have been down this road before!

Art

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Padre,

3 years is quite a long time for stuff to collect in the carbs, fine rust particles as well as just sludge/gum/varnish. There are very fine metering holes in the ends of the pilot and main jets, as well as the side of the main jet nozzle/emulsion tube that are easily clogged. However, you report that the bike runs well, no hesitation, good response, etc., and so yours may not be too gummed/varnished, and application of some Sea Foam or Techron cleaner can help keep it relative clean and clear flowing.

The float needles/seats are both solid metal/brass and don't really wear much, but again gum/varnish can build up on them, as well as the little spring on the end of the needle. But you don't need to replace them with, just a good cleaning and reinstallation will suffice. BUT to get them out you have to remove the floats and the pins that secure them are slightly tapered and so have an interference type fit...SNUG, and then with the years/decades of storage and dissimilar metals....aluminum float posts and steel pins, corrosion can form between them causing them to be very difficult to remove without risking breaking the float posts.

SO....read thru the tech tips on the various techniques to get the float pins out....and then once out, use some fine emory cloth or such to lightly file the pins down a little narrower so that they will just slide into the posts without much resistance. The float bowls are form fitted/contoured to keep the pins in place once they are installed, so the pins do NOT need to be to tight fitting! This will also aid in future R&R processes with no worries about breaking float posts when accessing the parts for cleaning/replacing.

[Radioguylogs]

Aftermarket OK for Me

Art:

I'm sure there a strong opposing consortium, but I have used K&L and Tourmaster float needles/seats in all my bikes with no trouble, except the floats have needed significant adjustment in some cases.

In your case, you can probably clean the parts you have.

Surely, you should not be satisfied to fix the petcocks without fixing the carbs. You want the floats to keep the right amount of gas in the carbs when the bike is running, and you definitely don't to risk gasoil when the bike is not running.