Author Topic: The ghetto carb clean....  (Read 2266 times)

Offline tomacGTi

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The ghetto carb clean....
« on: July 03, 2012, 09:08:04 AM »
Caveat emptor: do this at your own risk. I'd make sure you use this knowing that everything else is in good running order and that your situation is just clogged pilots.

So I've been fighting a bad idle for awhile, no surprise since I haven't had much time to ride and the new oxygenated fuels go to crap in short order in the summer heat (with or without any sort of stabilizer). No matter what I would use: seafoam, stabil, star tron, nothing was helping. I had already taken the carbs down all the way once and re-synched and wasted a couple of hours, I wasn't going to do that again. Here's how to do it:

-Make sure you have FRESH fuel. Doing this with old gas in the tank is pissing in the wind. This is the stuff that brought you here in the first place.

-Make sure that your carbs are FRESH. I wouldn't do this to 20 y/o o-rings as it may push them over the edge.

-Make sure you have good plugs. This may or may not foul them.

-Get a FRESH, NEW can of carb cleaner. Pressure is what you need here.

-Wear some EYE PROTECTION. You WILL shoot yourself in the eye and if you've never had carb cleaner in your eyes before IT SUCKS. An apron isn't a bad idea either. I am not saying this to be an ass either, you've been warned.

Ok, now that's out of the way:

-strip the tank and airbox off of the bike and expose the carb bank.

-Looking into the throats of the carbs, you'll see two holes with brass jets at the mouth of the carbs.

-Take your carb cleaner with the straw and aim directly at the one on the right first: this leads to the pilot circuit (this is the air bleed). A couple of short bursts is what you need.

-Do the same for the hole on the left: this is the needle jet air bleed.

-Lift the slide by hand and do the same for the emulsion tube.

-This is the tricky one: with the slide open, you'll see several holes by the throttle plate: give those a quick burst or two as well. Those are the bleeds for the idle and mid circuits.

-If you didn't go too wild and flood down the throats of the carbs, let sit a moment then try to start the bike. If it sounds like you hydrolocked the motor (will not turn over) stop and pull the plugs and spin the starter. Put a rag over the spark plug holes lest your ceiling and you may be wearing carb cleaner.

-There should be enough fuel in the system (it's fresh right?) and in the float bowls that you should be able to get a steady idle. It will be rough at first but it will smooth out. If you have a remote fuel source, it wouldn't be a bad idea to use it.

-While the motor is running, squirt a couple of shots into the RH and LH bleed just for good measure. You'll see the idle dip and come back, try not to flood the motor. If it smooths out and runs steady, you're done.

-It may be a good idea to change the oil at this point since you may have washed down the cylinder walls with carb cleaner etc and diluted the oil. I leave that on you. If you didn't go nuts, theoretically you should be fine. Once again: caveat emptor.


I've done this because I was simply tired of pulling the damn carbs completely apart only having to do it all over again. The good part is that since you didn't pull the carbs off the heads you don't have to synch them (though it would be a good idea anyway).

Hope this helps someone out.

-Randy

***Edit***

If this doesn't help, you'll need to break down the carbs all the way and clean the jets with wire and cleaner (AKA: the proper way). I had already done this and knew the obstruction wasn't solid.
« Last Edit: July 03, 2012, 09:11:28 AM by tomacGTi »