Ultrasonic carb cleaning update, and bonehead award!

Well, first time rebuilding motorcycle carbs, so I thought I'd share a few things NOT to do!

1. ultrasonic cleaning does not clean out the small passages.

2. carb cleaner also doubles as paint remover. I painted the carbs prior to cleaning and found out almost immediately!

3. carb cleaner in the eye hurts. bad. just got home from the emergency room. the thing they use to irrigate the eye is called a morgans lens (http://www.morganlens.com/vietnam.html) and is quite uncomfortable!

Lessons learned:
1. ALWAYS wear eye protection. I thought I was being careful...
2. clean the passages before painting

(I'm still a fan of the ultrasonic cleaning though - does a nice job on the body and parts!)

 

Ouch dude - glad you're okay - keep up the good work on the carbs.
And I can vouch for the hot lemon juice and compressed air for getting the small passages -- has worked great for me.

 

I used my Harbor Frieght 2.5 qt. ultra sonic cleaner tonight for the first time. The carbs I put in there were pretty clean to begin with. I used the simple green and water 80 / 20 mix. It worked well I would say. The green water soon turned to cloudy and dark after the #4 carb went in. There seems to be qiute a bit of fine debris in the water. I'm going to do a few more parts in the AM. I will drain off and snap a pic for you to see. I really like the heater function. That alone seems to help and as far as simple green, it seems to work just fine.

 

DM; oops! Sorry to hear of your experience, but I'm betting you aren't the only person on this forum that has skipped the eye protection at one time or another.

What kind of cleaning solution did you use? Apparently the solution makes a difference.

MN; look forward to pics. How long did you leave them in the
Simple Green solution?

The heater function is supposedly important and 150 degrees is supposedly ballpark correct for carbs.

 

Carb cleaner in the eye is the only acceptable proof that starter jets are open!