Carb Ultrasound Cleaning question

Is it worth the price, $80, to have your carbs ultrasound cleaned and how good is it?

 

what happens to the junk after its not stuck to stuff any more? it just goes down in the engine? I never even heard of this. off to google!

 

80$ to have them done by a real machine or to buy one from HF?
i'd say the HF one is about like a soak in lacquer thinner and a wipe off but there's no lacquer thinner involved and it's safe for plastic and rubber, doesn't help rust or corrosion and strips all the oil off stuff so it seems to rust if not oiled again.
i give it a try first and if it's still not good then i move to the elbow grease, i will say it's never hurt anything

 

Harbor Freight used to carry a real ultrasonic cleaner for about $100 (this one: http://hfreviews.com/item.php?id=2830).

Something like that with Naphtha or maybe maybe clockmakers' "soup" in it should do a pretty good cleaning of carb bodies and parts. Quite a bit better than a soak; the ultrasonic action does a lot to break down deposits of dirt in small areas (passages and corners).

But, whether it's worth $80 to have someone else do it? Maybe, if they guarantee that the parts will come back completely clean and you will need to do nothing but reassemble them. Otherwise, you can get similar results with time, patience, carb cleaner, small brushes, toothpicks, bits of wire, etc.

 

Let me clairify $80 to have it done in a LAGE scale bike shop. That is also a parts supplier, and does custom work on bikes. This is just for the empty carb bodies.

 

I have the 2.5 qt HF one now for my Honda and Suzuki carbs. Use Pine Sol and water....works great. May take 2/3 cycles depending on carb condition. I've never done XJ carbs in it so YMMV. Maybe Rick will chime in here.

 

well I been deep in the woods, under a rock cause I never heard of this before. well it sounds cool but if you gotta take the carbs off, then apart youve already done half the work, I'm still ignorrant to these things but Im failing to see that kind of cost being worth it. Ill stick to my brushes, wires and various homemade gadgets.
(I like my gadgets)
Ill use the 80 bucks for fork springs

 

I'll agree with SKW here. Save the $ for something else. DO IT YOURSELF and LEARN. The first time is daunting but we will get you through it. Personal example-- I started going to carb clinics cuz I was absolutely not gonna mess with the carbs since they are SOOOOO difficult and have ten thousand pieces that if you don't do it just right will never go together again. Well.....watching the guys tear apart a set of carbs right down to single pieces and then have it back together again and synced in time for an afternoon ride was unreal. I found out that I.....ME......could actually do it. After doing it a couple times and just taking it slow, and making LOTS of drawings, I can do it almost as fast as them. It's NOT difficult. Everyone just THINKS its difficult til they do it enough times to get over the scare and then enough times for practice and then it becomes easy.

The local shop down the road charges 125 bucks to do a rack, and it takes a few days to get them back, too. I'm not worried about quality there as the owner grew up on XJ's, and is willing to do work on my stuff if I get stumped, but..........I can take all day long, enjoy hanging out in my own shop, listen to the radio, etc.... and have my carbs back quicker than the shop will, and I KNOW that they are clean inside.

Learn to do it yourself..... winter is coming quick, so pull the rack and have fun while we're in the off-season.

Dave Fox

 

I totally agree with SKW and Hogfiddles on this, and what Hogfiddles says as the reasons what people use for not doing their own carbs is also the reason used big time for people not checking or wanting to check and do their valves too.

 

yesterday mine came back off completly apart and back the bike total time maybe 6 hours, I repolished the slide bores too so there would be no excuse for issues. its harder to get the airboots on in my opinion, once off its easy, just get a muffin pan or 2 and label the cups 1-2-3-4 what comes out of 1 goes in the 1 cup row, etc. then you can play with cleaning gadgets woory free.

 

Yup, and checking valve clearances is really an easy one, too. Again, I thought it was the 'impossible' and I watched Bill do it at a Carb Clinic and realized once again "what an idiot I am.....that's so easy--I can do that!". So I did on the next two bikes. Now I know how easy it is.

One thing that I try to do now is to approach any thing that needs to be done as "FUN". It's FUN to tear apart these carbs....it's FUN to check valve clearances, it's FUN to change fork oil, etc..... I have also MOSTLY learned that when I start getting frustrated, I need to stop working on - insert job here - , take a break and come back refreshed and ready to think some more.

My next couple things that I need to do, don't know how, but am going to dive in is:

1. replacing some fork seals

2 the biggie - gonna tear at least part way into a Maxim X engine that is sitting on the floor in my workshop. I don't know the first thing about the X engines so it's going to be a challenge for me on this. But, I'm going to do it, and while I do, all of you out there better be tearing into your carb racks cuz you'll have a much easier time than me!!!!! Let's ALL go for it.

Dave

 

I bought a UC from Harbor Frieght. It has its own heater and I like to use some simple green in the water and it does a great job. I have done many carbs in it so I would concider it paid for itself a few times over now.

MN

 

I like Redliners approach. I find myself taking on more projects where just as he says. If I find myself where I get stumped ect. I just stop and go onto another project. Usually after a good nights sleep I come back to the job and find that the solution is much easier than I thought. Working on bikes and being in a hurry usually are not good bed partners. I have always found that working on bikes and being able to take the time and use Patience go's a long way in ending up with a job well done. Bikes deserve a certain amount of Respect and if they don't get it they tend to BITE back! Like a wife, take care of them and usually they take care of us. grunt007, 81' 750XJ SecaR, Mi.

 

I don't have a problem with cleaning the carbs myself this I have already done. I have spare set that I picked up on fleabay for $35 and I'm doing a complete tare down and rebuild.
I just wanted to know two things:

1 Is there any advantage to having them cleaned by ultrasound over the manual method.

2 Is it worth spending the money to have it done.

By the replies I have gotten the answer is no to both questions. So I'll do it myself.

 

The main advantages, IMO, of ultrasonic cleaning (with the right chemicals) are:

1. You can more quickly do a good job cleaning a lot of carburetors - good for a pro shop

2. You can more easily restore the external cosmetics of an older carburetor

I don't think you're too concerned with 1. If you are interested in making them look newer, and the shop has the right solution to restore the appearance of the aluminum bodies, than 2 might be a motivator. Or you could boil them in lemon juice.

 

I'll will do the lemon juice boil. I just wanted to find out if there was an advantage with the ultrasound method over elbow grease method. It is a spare set and I have all winter to do it.

 

I agree with everyone that you should do it yourself if you can.

I have sent one rack out to be properly cleaned/specked; my XJ carbs and they went to Rick.

I clean all of my others myself, and my ultrasonic is part of the self method. You can hand-scrub only, boil in lemon juice, use carb dip or ultrasound or any combo. Once I tried an ultrasonic tank I became a happier mechanic.

 

$80 seems high just for the carb bodies. I do V Max carbs, totally dis assembled, carb bodies degreased, all passages blown out with CRC carb cleaner, jets, needles, jet blocks and starter plunger bodies soaked in GUNK carb cleaner bath, re assembled for $150. Parts extra.

And the XJ carbs are way easier to do than v max....just saying.