got the bowls off, nasty

Well, I got the bowls off the carbs I brought home (yea, brought them home before rest of bike ) and 3 of 4 are in a very sorry state, stuck floats and crud coating everything. The pic below is what they looked like still on the bike.
I soaked the bowls in pine-sol overnight and took a toothbrush to them tonight and they look awesome now. Well except for the plugged starter jets, they are all blocked up. I've got to wait a little bit to order a carb cleaning set from chacal along with the little bit to get into the starter jet.
Some of you might not like hearing this but I want to get the carbs cleaned enough to just get the bike running, even if it is a bit poorly. I want to see how the engine is as well as the transmission before I put a good bit of change into doing a more serious job on the carbs. If everything seems ok then I plan on taking the time to do a very good job on them.
Since these are the first carbs I have ever opened up and I am not planning o n replacing any items right now (besides gaskets) does anyone have any tips besides don't lose anything ? And yea, search has been my friend already and given me much info to digest.

 

Rifkinn I think you got the right idea even though most will not agree. You get it as clean as you can without dissecting everything. Some folks will pull it a art messing with the setting until they can't remember how they had it. Mine was the first carb I worked on. I resorted to what I knew to do and that was flow charts for trouble shooting.

Nice and easy. Slow and methodical. Address the problem by the symptoms. No fuel? Start with the tank and work to the carbs. Trouble shoot. Don't shoot for trouble.

 

She looks like alittle TLC is what is needed for your bike. You can get those carbs pretty close with out spending your whole paycheck on them. Concentrate on surgical clean. Clean, blow, polish, sand, sanitize clean those carbs. Then you only have to take them off once more to replace any bad parts. Remember you have to hook up the air box boots to make it run right. Alot of people get flustered when they can't get the bike to idle or rev up without stumble. (all because they were too lazy to put those boots back on). Get it running and give it a a once over. Install a fuel filter right away so you don't get junk in your freshly cleaned carbs. Good Luck

 

"Some of you might not like hearing this but I want to get the carbs cleaned enough to just get the bike running, even if it is a bit poorly."

Don't be ridiculous!
Take a whole extra day or two if you need to and Clean those Carbs completely, top and bottom.

If you take a shortcut and don't knock-out the Emulsion Tubes and Clean them while you have the Bowls off ... you'll NEVER forgive yourself for not going the whole nine yards.

Scrub the Diaphragm Piston Bores and make sure your Carbs will pass the "Clunk Test". You'll be so much happier as a result.

You only have to spend a few more hours making sure the rack is perfectly cleaned and ready for fine-tuning.
Go whole hog.
Clean the bejesus out of them.
Leave nothing undone, unchecked and not cleaned.

You will be so much better off having everything done than wishing you had done a more thorough job while they were off and opened and ready to be cleaned.

 

Trust us when we say get it CLEAN!!! Or when you are trying to pull the carbs out of there close fitting boots on each side cussing yourself 12 ways to Sunday as to why you didnt listen to the guys on the board. Realistically it only takes a few more hours to do it right then to just slap it all back together. That is unless you have to soak your emusion tubes for more than a few hours but you still have to do it. Like Rick say's check everything then check them again. This way you can be absolutely sure that they are correct. Also if you are worried about not getting everything back in the same place when you take them apart. Take notes, hell take pictures, that way you will have the experience and the pictures to help someone else out in future months.


Sean

 

Do it right, or do it twice. Trust me. I did it twice.

 

Lol Rick, I do intend to do that stuff. Maybe my idea of "cleaned enough" is more thorough than I thought. Maybe I should be saying that I am not separating the carbs at this point. No replacing the throttle shaft seals or the o-rings on the fuel lines, but knowing that it is a real possibility that they will need to be done. Like I said, these are the first carbs I have opened and am not sure about a lot of stuff but I am real glad to have these forums available to me.
I'm not in any hurry so I will be cleaning each and every piece that comes off (if I can get them off).

 

Do as I do take notes along the way. If you don't have plugs blocking the mixture screws put a few drops of pb blaster or the like right down on top of the screws to help loosen them up let that sit as long as possible before turning them. I well fitting screwdriver is a must. I softly bottom them out and count the turns for each on and write it down. THat way when you are done cleaning you can put them back and barely have to tweak them to get it perfect(assuming the bike was well tuned before) You don't have to break the rack apart if you don't wish but at least do the emulsion tubes, starter passages, pull the pilot screws and clean those passages out well. Be gentle with the mixture screws if they don't turn don't force them it may not be right but they wont be broken and you can still see if the bike runs ok. If they turn in freely lube it up flush out the hole then back them out. Take the time and get them clean man it is one less thing you have to do later and it will cost what 1.99 for another can of cleaner??

 

Oh and don't forget to get that old gas out of there before you even think about putting the carbs on!!! drain it out and flush some fresh gas thru the petcock with it in the prime position.

 

Take your time. Stay organized. It's OK to do one at a time. There isn't anything you can do that can't be undone.

Don't lose anything.
And, ... DON'T Break a Float Pillar Post muscling a Hinge Pin or pulling a Float Valve Body.

Protect those Pillars at all costs!!!

 

Carb dip is your friend. Soak the bowls for a couple of days and see what happens. Worked great on my Mikuni bowls.

Before I tore into my first set of carbs I bought a spare set to practice on. If I screwed something up -- it's a spare set. No harm, no foul.

XJCD is also your friend. There's a detailed description on how to pull the Hitachis apart and clean them.

And, (as I apparently have no shame at all 8) ) in the event that it does prove necessary to change out the throttle shaft seals, I took lots of pictures while I was doing mine.

 

I'm going to step away from the others and say that a so-so carb cleaning job is fine in the context you've given. Why get all methodical on 'em just to find the engine is seized or the transmission is shot? All that work for nothing. Yep, get 'em as clean as you think is nessessary and see if that bike will even start. Take some starting fluid with you when you go back to where the bike is. That way, if you don't get the starter circuits spotless, you can still hit it with starter fluid to get it warmed up.

Good luck and here's hoping she's a runner.

 

schmuckaholic, I had already found your pdf. That will be a great aid when I tear the whole assembly apart (when I am ready to do that). And I will be ordering that cd shortly.
Thanks for all the tips everyone. I do have to say I have read many of them in various places already throughout the forums. I need to be patient and take my time for sure.

 

Wait, I've changed my mine. Do an awesome job cleaning those carbs. I mean spotless. As if they were new. Then, if the bike doesn't run, I'll buy 'em off you for, say... $50.

[insert evil laugh here]

 

I know some people will say im crazy, but i use kerosene and old guitar strings cut to length, soaked the bowl in the kerosene for about an hour, then used a piece of the guitar string to clean out the stater jets, it works like a charm.

 

Hey, if it gets them clean ... you use it.
I have heard stories about "this guy I know" who even put a rack of Carbs in his wife's new dishwasher and tried the Pot Scrubber setting to see how they might come-out.

I'm not ever going to officially recommend you try that.
The heat might be bad for the Throttle Shaft Seals.

I remember wiring a set of dirty old Carbs to a milk crate and spraying them with a whole can of Gunk and then hitting them with the pressure washer ... just to see if I was going to be able to find the Carbs hiding behind layers of Junkyard mud and slime.

I got 'em off eBay. The ad said they might need to be cleaned before using them!

 

Truth in advertising, Rick.

 

it took me three times. also, make absolutely sure to clean the enrichment circuits in the bowls. after the first two carb dissassemblies, my bike would run but wouldn't start cold worth a damn until I cleaned out those passages and could have carb cleaner shoot straight through em.

 

i dont know, i keep a can of good ol kero around for cleaning, if it'll eat up plastic, it'll shine metal up nice too!!! the only problem is getting the residue off before you put youre rubber and plastic pieces back on.

 

I just finished cleaning my carbs today. It wasn't nearly as tough as I thought it would be. An "E" or "B"guitar string ( a buck or two from your local music store) works awesome for cleaning out the enrichment doo-hickeys in the bowls. In case you don't want to wait for shipping from Chacal. It's well worth a little extra effort to do them right the first time espescially when you have them off anyway.

The hardest part by far is getting the boots back on after you re-install! :lol:

 

see, a rookie guitar picker and a rookie xj mechanic, combines together to create some magic!!!

 

i hear you. those boots are a bi*ch

 

I actually couldn't wait to order from Chacal, probably doing that this next weekend, so I used a wire from a twist-tie from a loaf of bread and a can of compressed air to clean all four enrichment circuits and used a flashlight to make sure they were nice and open. Took a while on one of them but they are nice and open now.
I was a bit afraid of opening the top of the carbs to see how the diaphragms looked but they were in great shape, my biggest worry after that was getting them loose and out without damaging them but that went just fine.
I still haven't had the nerve to try taking the float pins out because of how stuck some of the floats are, one especially so I am just being real patient with other parts right now.