emulsion tube sawing and carb cleaning questions 98 1200

[onebohemian]

(This is a repeat post of about 10 minutes ago but I wanted it to be a new topic.  Accidently hooked it to an old message about petcock repair I posted months ago.  Please reply here if possible.)

In response to question a few months back regarding some petcock problems I was having, a member (Marc from Atlanta?) wrote:

. . . If your mileage is very poor, you may also have the emulsion tube elongation problem identified by Factory. Look through the carb top to make sure the opening is exactly round. If you have stock needles, they've been sawing the tubes to an eliptical shape.

I pulled the carbs last night because I'm having a lot of idle problems. First time for me into these carbs although previous owner had a professional installed stage 1 kit installed (I'm told) with airbox mod done. I'm going to clean them well and put a "kit" into them (which as best as I can tell is only going to be some o-rings and maybe needles/seats). Here's my questions:

1.) I can't find any info about the emulsion tube sawing caused by stock needles. Is there a recall on this? What can I do to check and/or fix if I've got problem? Have 15000 miles on bike.

2.) I'm not going to pull carb bodies off of their rack, but this means that I can't soak the carbs in a dip, correct? The rubber parts on the rack would get eaten by the dip. Do you guys who clean just buy a can of carb cleaner and spray into holes, etc. and then blow out with air? Can this method really dissolve the hard stuff? On the farm 20 years ago, we'd drop the carb body parts into a 5 gallon bucket of cleaner for at least a day. She'd come out sparkling.

3.) Haynes seems pretty straightforward so I think I'll be o.k. on the step by step. Was trying to find more detailed instructions on the internet from anyone who's done it before but no luck so far. Anybody have any sites for better than Hayne's instructions on dissembly and cleaning?

4.) Finally, I don't know yet if my pilot screw blanks were pulled out by prior owner. If they weren't, can I do a good cleaning without removing the pilot screws? If they were removed, should I take the screws out to clean the hole or leave them be? I assume if I were to remove them, I just need to put them back in the same number of turns as I took them out (seating them first and then backing them out to where they were set before I cleaned). Right?

Thanks,

Mark Privratsky
privrat@cpinternet.com
mprivratsky@lindquist.com
Minneapolis, MN
763-226-5565 (cell)

[Daytona]

A bunch of info on the carb rejetting section on this site, links etc. If it had a stage 1 it should have the epa plugs were removed @ that time. i have 32k on my bike, stock needles (multi slots). the problem i had was cured by adding sea foam to the gas over a month time. the biggest hurt to my fuel economy was i had the primary screws turned out to far. c two carbs are at 2 turns out and outer two at 2 1/2 out. all around miles per gallon 42.

[Red01]

1) No recall. This would be caused from normal wear and tear. 15K seems a little low to run into this issue, but if you run oxygenated or alcohol laced fuel, this can cause accelerated wear on carb parts.

2) You could dip the whole rack if you have a big enough container of dip. Carb cleaner and compressed air will get you a long way, but it's not usually going to get the job done if you've got some nasty stuff gumming up the works.

3) There are detailed, step-by-step, instructions of how to install jet kits and set floats, which is going to take you as far into the carbs as you're likely to need for cleaning.

4) No, take them out. Yes, that's how you figure out where they should go back - at least as a baseline.

[onebohemian]

Thanks for the info so far.  I've taken each carb's innerds out and should be able to put them back together tomorrow night, assuming dealer has the few o-rings I need.  Have come up with a few more questions:

1.)  Pg. 3-13 of my Haynes manual says at paragraph 17:  "Fit the jet needle down into the carburettor (see illustration 7.22), noting the flat on the bottom of the jet which must align with the pin in the carburetttor (see illustration).  Screw the main jet into the end of the needle jet (see illustration 7.21)."  

The illustrations aren't helping me and I don't have a "flat on the bottom of the jet" or a "pin" to align the flat with.  This refers to some other 1200 carb, right?

2.)  Same with page 3-14, which says at paragraph 25 and shows at illustration 9.25 fitting the spring seat into the bottom of the spring that sits on top of the needle jet.  My spring seat just rests on the top of the needle jet and can't be fitted into the spring as shown.  No big deal, right?

3.)  Do the large plastic box like structures in each carb that the pistons of the diaphrams slide up and down in come out of the carb bodies for cleaning?  The hole that the needle jet could saw oblong appears to be mounted in that plastic box structure.  Wondering if either the box or just the metal hole comes out?

4.)  Plugs on the pilot screws had been prised out so getting the pilot screws out was easy.  They were each exactly 2 turns out.  They are all supposed to be at the same setting, correct?  

5.)  When I removed the piston/diaphrams as well as the pilot screws, all had a white grease on them, like a white lithium grease for plumbing.  The springs on the pilot screws were covered with it.  Appeared that previous owner must have put the grease on the pistons to keep things moving smoothly but I don't understand why anyone would put grease on the pilot screws shaft and springs.  I cleaned everything but am wondering whether the pistons should have some light grease applied so they slide smoothly in their plastic frames.  Any thoughts?

6.)  I don't need to synchronize the carbs do I?  (I have one of those Great Britain sync tools that I used to use on my XS1100 -- can't remember the brand name and it's been years since I used it last).  Probably wouldn't hurt to do it, but I don't absolutely have to do it just because I cleaned the carbs, right?  I doubt a dealer would sync carbs after just cleaning them.  I didn't take the carbs off the rack and didn't touch the sync screws.  Would like to put this off until I drive the bike with clean carbs for a while and then get around to another valve adjust before syncing.

Thanks,

Mark

[onebohemian]

I need to vent.

Living in Minneapolis which has 9 Suzuki dealers, one would think that he could find parts to rebuild carbs for a 98 B12.  Unbelievably, nobody has the three o-rings and bowl gasket I need to finish this job.  Have to order from dealer.  More frustrating is that because Suzuki gave the parts its own special part numbers instead of just using the Mikuni part numbers, the dealers can't even cross-reference the Suzuki number to see if they have the part under another manufacturer's number.  Amazing at the lack of preparedness these dealers have.  It's all about selling you a new bike and then leaving you in the cold when you have to fix it.  We need to demand more of them.

Mark