Lemon juice carb boil - tips?

OK guys I think I have decided to clean my carb bodies to do the boiling lemon juice thing.

From what I know now...

Low boil
About 20 minutes
safe for bodies, brass (jets) and bowls
Will discolor brass
Will darken carb bodies

Is all the above correct?
On the 'discolored' thing... is it just cosmetic?
Will my jets be screwed up if I do them in there?
Can I use it for ALL my parts except plastics/rubber?

If I put all my screws etc in... I will probably boil them a group at a time in a mesh loose-tea ball I have.

Any times much appreciated, I need to get these cleaned and order my parts to rebuild!

 

try 5 minutes...and use PURE lemon juice, not concentrate...usually the little lemon shaped bottles. I haven't had a problem with discoloring ...i rinse with baking soda and water solution though, as should you.

 

super secret hot tip: Meijer's was out of lemon juice one time so I used LIME JUICE (plus it happened to be on sale) on a valve cover and it worked great! My daughter looked it up and lime juice has a slightly higher acid content than lemon juice...

 

I soaked mine for 5 or 10 minutes then scrubbed with old toothbrush and back in again. Worked fine. I used pinesol and sis not put the brass parts or floats in. Just the bodies.

 

I bought a can of this "carb dip" stuff that's in like a paint can with a basket to put the parts in. Is this stuff good to use on our old parts or is it better to use something else? Just curious.

 

Don't "dip" carb bodies with any rubber left in them (like throttle shaft seals) but for EXCLUSIVELY METAL bits it's fine.

 

wait you boiled pinesol?
so far others told me the brass is fine in there. you are saying it is not?

fitz I like the lime juice idea.
maybe ill do a mix and then strain it and have some 'carb sprite' lol.

so I just need to know that brass is ok in it and how much baking soda in how much water to rinse it.

 

Absolutely. That's what it's for. I swear by the stuff. I didn't soak my bodies, but I soaked all the jets, emulsion tubes, and especially the float bowls.

 

for the rinse just make a bowl of water and a couple tbsp of bak sod....will be fine.

 

Sooooo... brass will be OK in the lemon juice?

 

yessir...just may turn black...buff it with tabasco and back it comes!

 

Boil is too harsh - got it very hot. I have not tried the brass bits in the pinesol. I soaked them in carb cleaner and the were not bad enough to "boil".

I don't see what harm pinesol would do to brass other than possibly discoloration.

 

I broke down and got the ChemDip.

Says on the can 20-30 minutes.

Can I fit two carbs in the can at a time?
If the bike has always had an inline filter,
the only junk in the circuits should just be
gum/varnish, right? Basically, soaking in this stuff
should remove it, period right?
I am thinking about picking up a EE guitar string, I used that
on another set of carbs a long time ago...

 

Make sure all rubber parts are off of the carbs, because the carb dip will return rubber products back to their gooey, decomposed-dead-dinosaurs state rather rapidly.

The dip will hopefully SOFTEN the varnish to a point where mechanical probing, combined with pressure blasting with other solvents (spray carb cleaner) and/or compressed air, will forcibly remove the varnish and other remnants.

 

I hope to do it this weekend Len - I do have all rubber parts out.
All that is left in the bodies is 2 air jets in each, plus a 3rd in the one that has it stuck!

Anyhow... safe to drop the bowls in too?
And will a guitar string handle everything but the enrichment in the bowl?
I should have bought the kit from you when I ordered my carb gaskets etc... but I am running out of dough! Guitar string is CHEAP!

 

A-OK on the bowls.

 

Sweet. Will soak them for a few hours, then drop in the second pair, then get the bolts going too...

Any harm leaving them in there for ~ day or so without checking them?

 

No harm in leaving them in there a week!

Be aware that some carb dips CAN "stain" the carb bodies to a sort of dirty, grayish color.

 

Yeah, not too worried about that. They aren't real shiny to begin with

I hope the guitar string works... O_O I want to be running Saturday night... should have my parts from you Friday

 

I am able to fit two carb bodies in the can, if they are on their sides. Make sure you mark them so you can tell them apart when you pull them back out (NO SHARPIE!) I left mine in over night, two each time. Same with the bowls.
I have not yet tried the 'shoot your neibhor in the eye with carb cleaner from across the yard' trick. I bought two cans of chemtool carb cleaner and BOTH of them started shooting carb cleaner out from UNDER the cap about the time I got to 1/2 full. Got pissed, had one replaced and it did it to! So for the bowl test I spent $2 at walmart for some cheap stuff instead of $5 at the auto parts store for the good stuff.

The throttle shaft seals on my carbs were gummy before I dipped them. I was afraid I was going to gouge the surface they seat on trying to scrape them out. After an overnight dip they came out no problem.

Is there a 'map' to the carbs? Some way that I can know if I put a guitar string in 'here' it will come out 'there', or if I were to spray carb cleaner?

Carbs are to be so clean we could drink from them, right? How can we tell? I mean, REALLY tell? If I could see the shape of a stream of carb cleaner shooting from a hole I could guestimate how clean the passage was.

 

Sort of.

In my factory book there's a sectional view, but it's just that, a cross section. (Somebody recently posted the Hitachi version in a question.) The problem is, these things are some damn convoluted that no matter where you "section" it you only get part of the picture; something is always behind or in front of your "section."

The only way to truly have a "map" such as that would be to use 3D CAD drawing software, or a SERIES of sectional views.

 

The hip bone is conected to the leg bone, the leg bone's connected to the.......

Whoops, wrong subject.

The PILOT FUEL CIRCUIT draws fuel from the pilot JET down in the bowl, and gets it's air supply from the PILOT AIR JET port under the diaphram (all Hitachi models, and all XJ550 and XJ650 Turbo Mikuni models) or, from the LARGER sized and REMOVABLE pilot air jet in the carb airbox throat (on 700-X, 750-X, 900RK, and 1100 model Mikuni carbs), and then exits-stage-right through the pilot (idle) mixture screw port (there are actually two exits for this circuit).


The MAIN FUEL CIRCUIT draws fuel from the main JET down in the bowl, and gets it's air supply from the MAIN AIR JET port under the diaphram (Hitachi) or, from the SMALLER sized and NON-REMOVABLE main air jet in the carb airbox throat (all Mikuni carbs), and then exits-stage-left thru the power valve or emulsion tube that the main fuel jet is actually screwed into.

This main fuel circuit is hard to get "completely clogged", because of the relatively large size of the main fuel JET, but the tiny holes in the emulsion tube will get plugged up tight and need to be zestfully clean and not enlarged by your cleaning efforts.


The CHOKE-ENRICHMENT-STARTER circuit gets it's fuel from a small supply passage in the bottom front center of the fuel bowl, and then passes through a tiny brass non-removable jet buried deep within the bowl. From there, it's up that brass suction tube that hangs down from the bottom of the carb body, makes a 90-degree turn and heads straight forward towards the choke-enrichment-starter PLUNGER VALVE, and then from there to an exit port in the top of the carb throat.


A "carb passage snake-auger" would be a useful tool for the pilot and enrichment circuits, due to their twists and turns, but compressed air does work wonders, too.

 

varnish-eating nanobots would be the ultimate solution. Ya wanna get right on that please Mr. Len, sir?

 

Hey I'd buy those!

 

I dunno man, the engine maintenance ones are $15000.00 a dozen. Varnish-eating ones might be cheaper because of their single purpose, but they're probably still too expensive to be practical. That's why Len's gonna have to find us a place to get 'em made...

 

The throttle shaft seals I had were actually looking brand new, and slid right out.

As far as the nanobots, who needs em eh.
I just got my 'honey i shrunk the kids' Rick Moranis genuis machine.
They're at walmart.
In the toy section.
$5.

I will be using it this weekend and shrink myself down. Just hope I don't fall out of the shed and end up out in the front lawn

SO!!!! Will a guitar string work for everything except the bowls?
Because I soaked the bowl interiors for about 30 minutes and saw some 'reaction' to it, so I think the full soak will work. (And air)

 

yes, the guitar string will work... for alot of it... if you have an air compressor it works pretty good alog with the carb cleaner.... if you dont have a manual check my gallery for the fuel circut diagram.

on mine i alternated between pipe cleaners, carb spray, 80 - 90 PSI air, and then did it again till they all made the same pitch noises with the air.

With all the talk about the lemon and lime juice i was waiting to see if anybody recomended putting salt on the rim of the bowl and filling the fuel system with tequilla

 

:idea: How about using tequila to set the float levels, then you could just suck on the tube when you're done?

 

well i guess that would work as long as you boiled in lemon .... suggesting addendum to the house of clean post : if you can drink out of your carbs you know they are clean

 

I found an old water pic machine was pretty good with tiny passages I just used hot water followed by compressed air, then WD40.

After boiled so any stuff in jets was softened

 

Oh...my...god.

Use some big flexible hose and some 4-1 hose splices...

Instant Carb-Bong.

Of course, I wouldn't put alcohol in it, I don't drink.

I'd still use washer fluid.
It would keep me from streaking.

Ba dum bum!

 

Maybe THAT'S the way to "smoke a Harley..."

 

wow talk about putting some though into this .. quad sychronized Beer bongs lol dont forget your manometer, and depending on the beer you may need to take the charmin color tuner