I'm going the whole 9 yards to the church of clean!

I finally did it. Told(asked) the wife that I was(if I could) going to order up my parts to spec the valves and clean the carbs.(she said yes)

I've read over all the tutorials time and time again. I've scared myself with the worst case scenarios, and wishfully hoped upon the success stories.

My valves, gaskets and doughnuts are on the way. Since breaking into the top of the engine I have little anxiety about replacing the shims I found out of spec.

My full carb rebuild kits are on the way also. Pulling the carbs, breaking the rack, getting them zestfully clean, AND putting them back together is another story. Not to mention getting them together right. Not to mention getting them set right. Not to mention getting them installed right. Not to mention syncing and tuning them right. Lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

I hear there is a major storm brewing (for real) I'm scared that might be an attempt of the Gods to tell me I should leave well enough alone.
My heart sees a future me on a bike purring down the highway. With a twist of the wrist the engine snaps to life and rockets me pass the bus carrying the college cheerleading squad. (Who shows their admiration in pairs.)

My mind sees a pile of parts on the bench and my body quivering in the corner.

 

Just take things slow and pay attention to detail. Take lots of photos too. Will help if (when) you wonder "how does that go together again"?

When doing your valves be sure to disconnect the battery. Don't know if you saw this or not but here's why.

 

Take lots of PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!! I did mine one by one a little longer of a process but you won't mix up any parts that way. Maybe after the first one if you feel more confident go ahead and do the rest all at once. You will still have that one complete carb to go back to.

 

Buy disposable aluminum cup-cake tins. They help keep the parts separate by carb, you can put pieces in as you disassemble, so there will be some "order" to the parts (i.e. float bowl parts in one, jets in another, etc), and you can even soak the parts in carb cleaner in a bowl.

 

A Member gifted me with a pair of Rubber Cupcake-type bins.

I use them for everything that comes apart in pieces.

I have an Industrial "Parts Bin"
I made a "Shelf" out of a Doggie-Crate Door.
Covered it with Nylon Screen.

When I clean a part of spray a rack, ... the Carb Cleaner just drips-off carrying anything nasty right through the screen.

The SCREEN is a MUST.
Without it the risk of Float Pillar damage is way-high.

 

You'll be fine .

Dave

 

Oh fercryinoutloud. Provided you don't get swept off the face of the earth by the impending weather; do you have a garage?

Don't end up quivering in the corner. You've got the "XJ Gang" to help. Worse comes to worse, I need an excuse to visit the Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson anyway. Been too long, we've already been discussing it (me and the troops; wives are overrated. After 4 I can say that.)

You've found the valve adjustment how-tos? It really is a simple maintenance procedure; do it a few times (every 5K miles) and it quickly becomes no big deal. Especially if you keep a good log book.

 

Well the weather didn't send me to OZ. I guess I take that as a warning to be fruitless in the search for the Holy Clean Carb. It is the weary traveler that gets the best sleep.

I do tend to add dramatic flair to some of my posts. I don't know if it makes it for more fun to read, but it is more fun to write. I'm not so scared of digging into the carbs. I've never gone deeper than draining a float bowl and removing it. Still, witht some of the tear down and assembly I've had to do on my cars just to get to work, I'm comfortable enough.

Last night I rearranged my wife's stuff in the garage so I could get to the work bench. Cleaned up my tool box so wrenches were in the wrench drawer, screwdriver in the screwdriver drawer, etc...etc...

I was going to start the removal process, but the family decided I should go to Kings Island with them for a few hours.

I do enjoy the Air Force Museum. Haven't been there in a few years, but I've spent many a rainy day in there reading the walls and admiring the work that goes into some of those things. I work at GE Aircrat Engines, so I understand the problems we have today. Building the things they did 40,50,60 years ago with the technology they had is just mind boggling. If you need an excuse to come visit the history, I'll give you one, but you might not get out of the garage clean! :lol:

***edit, talk of the USAF Museum reminded me I didn't update my profile location when I moved. I'm still not far from the Museum, but I'm closer to Kings Island now.

 

Carbs out.
1st thing I noticed. Butterfly valves widely differ in opening. Probably .005 difference between #3 and #1. #3 has a very slight gap, while #1 I can get a .005 pin to pass.
Racks apart. Only have 40 or so pictures so far.
#1 carb torn down. Except the buggered up bowl drain. Not as bad as I expected. Parts soaking during dinner. Will see if I can rebuild it after. Just to try. Still waiting on parts. Will soak overnight and tomorrow I'll try to build it again.

I have a very complete set of pictures to refer back to.

 

Oh I forgot to mention..... there was no o-ring under the washer with the idle screw.

 

Sounds like its going smooth. Nice job

 

Putting it back together is a piece of cake. Back in the goo to get the gunk softend up. Tomorrow I'll scrub it and get the next one soaking.
Crossing my fingers the XJ4ever goodies will show up tomorrow. Not counting on it though.

 

Double post

 

Look closely again for the O-ring underneath the small metal washer....They are hard to see.....must sure you did not overlook getting it out....you dont want 2 in there.....

I am assuming you are referring to the idle mixture screw....

 

I looked and looked. Expecting a tiny thing I flipped the carb over on a nice clean paper towel in the bottom of a container. Unless the thing is white and or lighter than air, I do not think there was one there. I guess I could be wrong, but that little bugger must be pretty darn small.
Judging by the mixture of screws and bolts, plus their head conditions, I wouldn't be suprised if the last person that took these apart didn't know about that o-ring.

 

Some of my mass amount of photos.



Note the difference between #1 and #3 butterfly openings.






This is just a few of my photos that I have. I also have 4 pages of sketches and annotations in my handy dandy notebook.

 

Looking good. Be sure to get those float bowl passages zestfully clean!

 

the talk of Fitz traveling to USAF museum and me looking up where Maineville is (never heard of it & attended UD in Dayton for 5 years...) I see we're within 90 minutes of each other. I was just at the museum a couple of months ago; its a splendid place & been there multiple times

I don't think anybody has mentioned it yet, but when you put the carbies back together make sure they are aligned STRAIGHT with each other. It is more critical than I thought when I did what you're doing for my 650, and spent an entire summer trying to figure out why I had issues with the idle increasing. What I think happened was a slight binding (because I assembled them not exactly straight) with one or more of the butterflies and in turn it caused the butterflies to not fully shut when at an idle.

You've gone beyond the typical "I'm-gonna-spray-the-carbs-with-carbcleaner" task of just getting the to bike run. Congrats. If all work is done meticulously you will be happy with yourself when completed. Good luck & we're here to help..

 

Zestfully clean is where I'm headed. I have most of the weekend to myself so I can see a few beverages and an evening with the wires and bristles.

Moellear, I spent some time Growing up in Shawnee. My mom and Stepfather still live up there around the Highschool. Have several other family members who live in the area.
Don't feel bad about not knowing where Maineville is. People who have spent their entire lives living 15 minutes away may have never heard of it. I didn't know where it was until last year just before we moved.

 

Seeing as you split the rack are you planning on replacing the shaft seals? If they're original (most probably are) and not leaking now it's only a matter of time.

Throttle shaft seal replacement.

 

I did replace the shaft seals. I got a deluxe full rebuild kit from xj4ever, plus new idle screws. Good thing too, as 2 of the old ones had bent tips. Judging by the shape of things, someone has been into these before, but didn't do them any good.

I got everything zesty and the indicidual carbs back together. I dry se the floats when I was installing them. Tomorrow morning I hope I can get the rack back together, bench synch and wet set the floats. Then I have to replace a couple shims and I'll be ready for the real test.

I'll pick up a dual gauge set from a buddy tomorrow afternoon. Then maybe a vacuum synch tomorrow evening if I get home in time.

Hopefully I'll be too worn out from flying, but who knows.

 

Those O-rings are miniatures.
Tiny.

Heat the tip of a Darning Needle.
Bend a tiny "Hook" on the end.
Go fishing.

 

I got 3 out easy enough. I never did find the 4th. I honestly think it wasn't there. The carbs had 2 bent idle screws. Butterflies were quie far off. There is a hodge podge of different bolts holding things together. One diaphram was partially out of the groove. the carbs were pretty clean for the most part.

All in all I think someone didn't visit this site when they last worked on these carbs.

Now with that said...... I put everything back together. Changed out the needed shims. Hooked up the tank and varooom! Already running better than it was. Hooked up my borrowed synch tool. Ahhhhh sweet!.

Now if I could find a colortune to borrow, or that old school tuning trick. Will probably do some chops and check out the plugs. Go from there.

 

My oh my what a difference it has made.

I'm mostly done with this whole valve spec, car rebuild process. the difference it has made in this bike is nothing short of fantastic! I've been on this bike since 1986. I use to beg dad to take me places on the bike. To the store, to ball practice, to Tennessee for fireworks, whatever.

Now the bike belongs to me, but it was long overdue for some TLC and mechanical re freshening. Usign the knowhow I gathered from this site, and getting the needed parts from local chacal at xj4ever, I know have a bike that runs almost as strong as I remember.

My lack of tuning knowledge and fine tuning skills has left me with a not quite right, but really close running engine. Give me a few more days to play with it and i'll either have it done, or I'll find someone to help!

I had started some cosmetic work on the bike. Just polishing up some of the metal bits. I stopped when I decided if I couldn't get the bike to run right, I wasn't going to worry about how it looked. Now that I'm close on the running, I feel obliged to continue with the cosmetics like polishing and a paint job.

Just what my wife wants to hear. "Honey I need XXXXXX for the bike!"

 

Glad to hear things are progressing nicely. It really is something when you get these motors set right after years of neglect, isn't it?

 

Nicely done, CHassan. Enjoy the trip, and do all the little things. It all pays out in the end. Heck, I don't even bother with the shiny stuff because I love when squids in their shiny crotch rockets show up at the stop signs and try to intimidate me...