love them carbs

Mine are about to be cleaned. There so dirty I'm not really sure how the bike ever started. Vales are being checked on Sunday.

 

The good news about 4 carbs is you have 4 times the practice. The bad news about carbs is you have 4 times the practice. Looks like you know the drill.

Are you going to break the rack and tackle that puzzle as well?

 

I would suggest on breaking the rack and replace the throttle shaft seals as well as the fuel rail seals. It also makes it less cumbersome to handle one carb at a time when cleaning and polishing. My experience was 3 months after a cleaning without breaking down the rack, the fuel rail seals began to leak.

I will never do a cleaning without breaking the rack from now on. Do it right the first time and be done with it.

Hope this helps

 

Even more importantly, if you don't plan to break the rack yet, DO NOT submerge or even "flood" the still-assembled carbs with cleaner. If you manage to drive cleaner into the throttle shaft seals, you will be breaking the rack.

 

Was not planing on breaking them apart. I did that on my first bike and it was not fun,and I was told after that it really was not needed.

 

It may or may not be.

The best practice is to CAREFULLY "service" the carbs, and then see where you're at. A lot of people overdo it and end up damaging what might have been perfectly good throttle shaft seals.

The problem is, there is no way to be sure without examining them. Or fighting with mysterious tuning issues after having done everything else. You can get a clue (but only a clue) by carefully examining the only two you can easily get to, the outer two (on carbs #1 and #4.) If those two are shot, then chances are the others are too. However, if those two are in decent shape, it's no guarantee for the other six that you can't see.

It's a crapshoot. Sometimes the seals are in fine shape; sometimes they're "decent ~ok" and sometimes they're a collection of disconnected little rubber rings floating on the shaft no longer sealing anything. Sometimes there's almost nothing left but a halo of rubber.

 

Your about 10 minutes away from breaking them the rest of they way down. Do it now, or you're gonna be about two hours away from them when you find out they're leaking.......

 

+1 on Hogfiddles last comment.

 

So I should break them all apart? Even if the bike started up with out instant start and started but ran at a 5 k rpm.

 

Yes. Replace the seals and the fuel rail o-rings. You'll be glad you did.

 

I am in the midst of the same process, and all of my fuel rail o-rings and shaft seals are brittle. It's quite simple to break the rack, just do it and know that it was done properly.

 

OK I will be breaking them tonight. I just remember the last time I did this some parts went flying

 

Presume you have seen these...

http://www.xj4ever.com/mikuni%20carb%20cleaning.pdf



http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=2 ... n+own.html

 

Break that rack.......do it right the first time or learn the hard way.....it will cost you more money but will be well worth it in the end......trust everyone's advice to break that rack.......you are there anyway......do the whole 9 yards.....

 

All broke down. Into the dip they go,then a boil then dip then a wash . that should clean them up