Cleaning / Soaking Carb Advice

I recently picked up an 82 XJ650 that had been sitting unused inside a garage for the past few seasons. I flushed the tank, changed the inline filter and plugs, and did an oil change before trying to fire her up. Although the bike appeared to be run dry before storage, I could smell the familiar scent of old gas when I tried to start her. I eventually got her running but couldn't get her to hold an idle. On subsequent attempts (and a little Seafoam), she will only run choked and wouldn't take any throttle.

I'm assuming the carbs / jets are all plugged up and will need to be pulled and cleaned. I was going to soak all the smaller parts in Berryman's that I remove but was wondering how important it was to include the entire carb body. Is it usually good enough to just thoroughly spray the passages with cleaner? If not, since I'm not going to disassemble the carbs from one another I was thinking of "borrowing" one of my wife's rectangular cake pans (I hate cake) that could contain the entire assemble. If I go this route, could I reuse this fluid? It's expensive and I'd hate to waste all of it. Lastly, how long do you normally let all the parts soak and can you just blow them out afterwards or do they need to be rinsed in something first to make sure you get all the cleaner off?

Sorry for all the questions but I'm new to this and on a tight budget.

Thanks for the help!

 

Things you need right away: a service manual.

DO NOT repeat do not soak or submerge the carbs in anything unless you plan to "break the rack" and replace the throttle shaft seals trapped in the carb bodies.

You can start with a "service teardown" and cleaning, which does involve disassembly just not a complete strip. The procedure is covered in both the Haynes and factory manuals, and discussed at length here.

Once cleaned, it's very important to verify the float levels, as detailed here: http://www.xj4ever.com/setting%20fuel%20levels.pdf

You'll need to check your valve clearances and get them in spec before you'll be able to adjust the carbs once they've been serviced. The procedure is detailed here: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=14827.html and part 2: http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=29209.html

You're also going to need to replace the 30-year old brakes; read these:

http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=15874.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=41400.html
http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=41403.html

And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but if you're planning to make this bike road ready, reliable, and safe; you're looking at about $400 ~ $600 with you doing all the work. That doesn't include any "cosmetics."

 

Thanks for the advice and encouragement!

I finally got done rebuilding and reinstalling my carbs. A couple of the jets were clogged so she was never going to be right unless I did this. It was such a wonderful feeling to hear her fire up right away! The whole process was relatively painless thanks to the helpful tips I received. The worse part for me was the back and forth needed to get the floats set right.

I'm now on to the brakes and plan to rebuild the entire system. I'm curious why the front pad seems to have seized to the caliper.

Thanks again for the help!

 

So now you CHECK THE VALVE CLEARANCES, and adjust as needed to get them into spec so you can sync the freshly-serviced carbs.

 

Yup, valves are good and I'm on the prowl for a set of gauges and a YICS tool to do the sync....

Cheers!