Which carbs to rebuild

Yesterday I was standing in a long line with my wife waiting for a shuttle to go to a craft festival. A Seca pulled into the gas station across the street, and it had the turn signals mounted to the rear of the license plate, as if to accommodate hard bags...like the ones I want to put on my Seca, and have been putting off because I'm not happy with the turn signal solutions I've found so far. I went to look, discovered that the bike is the same year and size as mine, is for sale, including the nearly complete factory touring package. I made arrangements to buy the bike.

My current bike needs carb work--despite a 'professional' rebuild, if I leave it on prime, I have to change my oil. The gas station bike's current owner says it has had carb work but isn't all the way right. I have no idea yet if that is actually carb issues or valves.

Assuming that they are basically sound, I would like to properly rebuild the gas station bike's carbs, then swap those over to my current Seca before syncing. Under what circumstances would that be a bad idea? How do I tell if they are worth the effort, or which ones would be better long term? It would be nice if I could wind up with both bikes running OK at the end, but I'm also not sure how much effort the gas station bike is worth-cosmetically it is a mess, with signs that the mechanics may have been neglected.

 

Well, only way without taking them off that I can think of would be play with the mixture screws and see which set of carbs you can get to produce tan plugs, or takes the fewest turns out to eliminate a lean condition. That's still an iffy method, but basically I wouldn't imagine that there is a method--you just need to take both racks off and see what they look like inside. I guess you could try and just take the end bowls off each and see the condition of those, and base your decision on that, if you want to go a lazy-step further.

But just take the carbs off and assess which ones are more complete/less gunk-ified.

Funny coincidence.

 

I realize that I'm probably going to have to disassemble the carbs to make a final judgement, but I don't know what to look for to make the judgement that 'these carbs are too screwed up to be worth fixing". Especially since it isn't a choice of 'fix it or don't ride".

 

"My current bike needs carb work--despite a 'professional' rebuild, if I leave it on prime, I have to change my oil. I have no idea yet if that is actually carb issues or valves."

This sounds like you have either incorrect float setting, too high, or a stuck float needle valve, which is most likely. The carbs need to be removed and propperly set up. Replace the needle valves and set the float hights. Buying another bike and swaping carbs wont solve your problem.

 

The question isn't whether I just swap and hope for the best, it is how to decide which ones to rebuild, with the goal of good carbs on my daily driver with minimum downtime--my driver is eventually getting rebuilt carbs either way. A secondary goal may be to get the parts bike in shape as a driver, but I won't decide that until I get it in my garage.

 

I don't know what would fit in this category outside of broken bodies or float pillars.... Cleaning is just cleaning. It can be done

 

Rebuild both 8)
You'll spend a lot of time learning the "how" of rebuilding the first time, so much so that the second set is going to take you half as long.

If his "professional" rebuild didn't include throttle shaft seals, pilot and enrichment o-rings, and fuel tube o-rings, do it once, do it right, and you'll never have carb problems again.

I'd say that NO carbs are beyond repair, unless something in the body itself if damaged (like a broken float pillar, or broken easy out in a pilot mixture screw). EVERYTHING else will be repairable, and the effort required is really similar to a set that "looks" clean. O-rings get old, cracked, and dried out, and it's just easier to replace them if you don't know their age. Many newbies assume that if the bowl end looks clean, the carbs MUST be clean, and end up doing the carb cleaning again and again.

 

I may--that depends on whether the rest of the bike is in better mechanical shape than it looks under the grease and exposed wires. I do want two good bikes, I'm not sure I want two bikes so similar--and financially the most sensible thing would be to take the parts I wanted and sell the bike pretty much as is.

It was my bike's carbs that were 'rebuilt' by a
'professional' with an actual storefront. His were rebuilt by a buddy who fixes bikes, and I don't think he did all of them. Either way, whichever set winds up on my daily bike needs a complete and proper rebuild. That part isn't up for debate.

"possible" and "worth the effort' aren't the same--I am just trying to avoid situations where the effort or expense winds up greater than the convenience of being able to ride while I rebuild. Based on the responses here, it appears that something like that is unlikely.

 

YOU still have to wet set the floats and do a vac sync and colortune. And a store front don't mean nothing. There's many a "professional" out there with a store front who don't know their a$$ from a hole in the ground!