Old School Carbs -- Comments Section

I'm doing a piece on Cleaning Carbs. The first page or two is for "Never Did-its"

Everything else is going to be a very well explained, step-by-step ... with added -- 'What it is' and 'what it does'. Like that.

Since many of you have PM'd asking carburetor questions; this 1st Series of Old School Method, will be long on the qualifying you to do ALL your own Carb work and relatively short on trying to be funny.

This Piece needs YOU to illustrate the copy with YOUR photographs. I'm shooting some pictures of my own; but, am way too lazy to do all the stuff to get them in an Album.

It's like a quiz, though. You read about it. Find it on your bike ... and take a picture of it.

Here we go ... remember, this is a living thing. This COMMENTS section is intended to save the whole piece in one long thread.

We use this for Q & A ... Help ... and, making sure everybody is "ON THE SAME PAGE -- (Pun intended)

So here we go ... I POST THIS. Comments happen HERE! Then, I copy and paste Page 1 for everybody to come back HERE to comment on.

The Over / Under for people who won't get-it is: 5.

 

I'll put $20 on over...

 

I hope somebody don't start ripping the rack out, tonight! I don't even have the next word on a page, yet.

Plus, I have no plans to rush it!

PHOTOS -- Take your photos! Post them and we'll do nice captions.

 

Hey Rick,

I currently have the carbs (as well as everything else) ripped out of one of my Seca Turbos. If it would help, this would be a good time to take any pcitures you need. Describe what you would like and I'll snap away.

Greg

 

The next phase is opening-up the carbs. One by one we'll "have a look at things" hiding just a few fasteners away.

Every step has two possibilities:
Comes apart easy like it should.
Doesn't come apart easy ... a road block. We'll have to include the road block and what to do. What to do's ... we want to keep at a level that clears the road block and doesn't cause further problems.

Stay organized. The way you organize the cleaning process makes the putting-together process very easy.

Fasteners:
Fasteners that will not come out need to be extracted with a hand-held Impact Tool. (Sears)
Bunged-up screws and fasteners need to be replaced. The thread is Metric and hardware stores are well stocked with Metric Fasteners.
A few buck will replace all the screws for the Carb Bowls and the Top Hats. You can pimp with Cap Screws or Bling with Stainless.

Jets:
ALL the Jets are BRASS. BRASS will deform or even break fairly easily.

You'll need to have a small set of screwdrivers that fit the slots on Jets - perfectly! You'll need to grind or file several screwdrivers for the servicing of the following jets:
Main Jets:
(A stubby, regular blade -- the tip will need to be grinded a bit. The slot on the Main Jet is wider than the tip on the stubby.)
Primary's:
(A small, long, "Tuner-type" flat-bladed screwdriver. The lower outside "edges" of the screwdriver need to be grinded-off to allow the screwdriver to fit down inside "a hole" too narrow for the edges. The tip on this screwdriver needs to be machined-down to fit the slots on the small Jets so perfectly -- that there is ZERO end-play. Probably the MOST important fabrication to the whole process.)

The small-jet screwdriver needs to fit the slots with NO end-play because the threads on a stuck jet will deform or break-off if the applied torque allows the threads to move without transferring the torque to the entire mass of the threaded end.

Other essential tools:
Standard set of Welder's Tip-Cleaning tools. Visit a Weld Shop. This set of tools is DIRT Cheap. Four bucks or less for the complete set that comes in a fold-up aluminum cover. It's nice to have a spare set available, too.

The weld tip cleaning set has tools ... very, very small diameter cleaning rods which fit the smallest metering ports to be encountered in the individual components (Jets and Metering Ports)
For example:

http://www.whanna.com/xj/displayimage.p ... t=1&pos=10

http://www.whanna.com/xj/displayimage.p ... t=1&pos=11

More to come:
Stay loose.

Are we having fun yet?

 

Love the links! Great pictures! I've found that a stubborn brass jet will loosen up with a GENTLE whack of a screwdriver handle. Love the write-up so far, your going to help countless numbers with this work your posting Rick, keep it coming!

 

Intro to Float Bowl and Lower Section is being written as we speak. I'd have had it done for an early-evening post ... but, I spent most of the afteroon at 6,000 rpm's ... doing a nice little RickCoMatic rides all day.

I Love my Max.

290 miles - 11:45AM - 6:12 PM Billerica, MA to Conway, NH, Kancamangus Highway to Lincoln, NH, then fly 93 back Home!

Somebody ... how fast is 8,000 rpm - 5th gear. (wishing there was a 6th.)

 

Good writing up RickO , tis laid out well.....

 

Rick, You´re the man. For a newbie, your writeups are invaluable.

Just one question (haven´t read through all your "lessons" yet, so forgive me if you´ve got it covered already): Does your guide apply equally to Hitachi and Mikuni carbs?

 

Right now ... I'm using the Hi-tot's for my visual reference as I'm writing the articles.

The Hi-tot's and Mic's are very, very closely matched, design-wise.

If you learn to dive-in to the Hitachi's ... Mikuni's subtle differences shouldn't be an obstacle to anyone familiar to the design and function of Hi-Tot's. Deflector plate, two more air-jets and no funny-looking hat.

Oh ... I almost forgot. Newbee??? I started tuning-up an fixing bikes shortly after I bought my Brand New -- HONDA-50 !!! I'm pushing 60!

 

Ok, fine - thanks

- and sorry ´bout my english; I´m the newbee here (should maybe have been: ""to" instead af "for" (a) newbie (meaning myself)..etc.etc."

Again, really appreciate your writings (also on other topics). I´m planning to pull my carbs this winter, followed by tuning an syncing - and I wouldn´t dare to do it without thorough guides like yours..

 

Hey Rick!

Are you going to finish this how-to? Enquiring minds want to know...

I read your old school carb sync lesson and I have a few questions on that as well. What range should I be looking for in a vacuum guage? I have access to a couple one goes to 5 inches the other 25. Will either of these work?

 

Use the long ones!

There is ALWAYS the possibility of having the rev's run-away on you and the mercury getting sucked right into the bike's intakes.

That is extremely dangerous! The result would be your immediate exposure to mercury vapor. A condition that could cause you to develop some very serious health problems.

If you begin to do your syncing ... and the mercury columns are pulled high on the sticks ... you need to install a set of vacuum restrictors to get the pull of vacuum regulated down some.

Don't push your luck if you are using a nanometer with mercury. Have somebody's finger on the kill switch ready to kill-it if the engine starts to rev-up on you.

 

There have been some "Technical distractions" happening, here on the XJBikes ... which grabbed my attention and distracted me from the Old School Carbs series of forum submissions.

I found myself in the E. R. along with Robert and others ... looking at an alien mystery. A death-ray attack destroyed the engine on a bike.

I'm better now.

----------------------------------

For those of you that are considering doing your own carbs; have I managed to bring you along the process OK?

Is there anything that's been covered, so far, that needs clarifying?

Anybody have a question?

Everybody feeling confident enough to grab a Phillips?

 

Don't Miss the NEXT exciting Chapter of:
"Old School Carbs" by Rick Massey

The real fun begins when we deal with the possibility of yanking-out Factory Pilot Screw Anti-tamper plugs.

We'll learn what to do, how to do ... and, what NOT to do -- to safely extract the Pilot Screws and put the wraps on a 100% -- YOU did them all by YOURSELF Carb Cleaning.

We're on a Mission from God.

 

The Blues Brothers ride again!!