Carb cleaning

[venture83_98]

Hope this is the right place...

I have a '83 Venture Standard. Anyone in the Columbus, Ohio area have access to a ultrasonic cleaning tank? Or someone on the list know of someone with one. The shops around here want $50 per carb body, with me doing the dissembly/reassembly.

 

I used to send them to a guy in texas, but it has been a few years, and I cant find his info.

 

Also, anyone have experience with the Harbor Freight (or similar) tanks? A waste of money, or worth it?

 

Any input is appreacited.

 

Thanks,

Kurt

[Yammer Dan]

What have you tried before getting this drastic?

 

If it is running a good Sea-Foam soak will take care of most carb problems.

[Snaggletooth]

$50.00 each to do a stripped body sounds about right. I've checked around here and it seems to be normal. I've got 4 bodies I want to have done this winter and redo the carbs on the bike.

 

I've looked at the HF units and the small one is way to small. The largest one will not cover the entire body ( I took one with me when I looked at them) so it's would be a dip and flip to get it done completely.

 

Probably work? ...... sure. Just a lil more time involved.

 

How durable is the HF unit? No idea. But for under $85.00, depending on coupons or sale prices, I'll probably give it a shot. Better than $200.00 and waiting for them to get to them.

 

And who is doing all the hard part? Not them.

 

Mike

[Yammer Dan]

Hey Mike. I have a Harbor Freight cleaner. What should I use in it?

[friesman]

Hey Mike. I have a Harbor Freight cleaner. What should I use in it?

 

better send yours to Mike and let him research what works the best in it.......

 

Brian

[RandyR]

better send yours to Mike and let him research what works the best in it.......

 

Brian

 

Seafoam ???

[venture83_98]

What have you tried before getting this drastic?

 

If it is running a good Sea-Foam soak will take care of most carb problems.

 

almost through the second can of seafoam.....the right front cylider cuts in and out. It is getting better, would barely idle when I got it. When warmed up completely, it mostly fires on all 4. Previous owner said it sat for a year, but tags were expired almost 3 years. Changed plugs, wires and air filter just to get it to start.

 

I had a Magna that had the same problem, and after pulling/ cleaning 4 times in a month, sent them off, and it ran nearly perfect even before a sync.

[dingy]

Hey Mike. I have a Harbor Freight cleaner. What should I use in it?

 

I have the larger HF unit. Got it last year to clean my carbs.

It worked OK. I found a better basket that is better than the supplied one. Got it from a bathroom section at some store.

I have been using Slime Green in it. Seemed to work fairly well. This is a household type cleaner. Was recommended by other users.

I ran all the parts through multiple times. It has a 480 second timer on it for max on one cycle.

Also used silocone to seal around upper lip of tank, I found on line somewhere this was a source of water leaking into electronics under tank.

Gary

[Snaggletooth]

better send yours to Mike and let him research what works the best in it.......

 

Brian

 

Thanks Brian.............

 

Line forms to the left of friesman!

[Yammer Dan]

I think I have about 10 sets of carbs. Thats 40 carbs at 1/2 each time....

[CaptainJoe]

To clean the inside of carbs and orifices use carb cleaner and pressurized air.

 

To clean outside carb body and bowl you can go ultrasonic but in his case

"smaller" is better. Remember, if you get something that will hold four carbs bolted together,

that is deep enough to cover them all... IT'S GONNA TAKE A LOT OF CLEANER TO FILL... and that can get expensive if your using seafoam or other type of carb cleaner...

 

Myself, the next time i tear my carbs off, I'm gonna try Pine-sol in a large ultrasonic HF pan. This was suggested by one of our members a while back who swore by it... I'll try it as it can't hurt an aluminum carb body...

 

Or,

 

will just spray outside with full strength Toranado which is made right here in good ole St Albans, WV.

 

It sure is some powerful stuff.

 

Anyone else have experience using household chemicals to clean aluminum?

 

Dingy suggested Slime green...

Edited December 12, 2011 by CaptainJoe

[Bubber]

I too have read the article on cleaning carbs with Pine-Sol.

It had pictures too.

The carbs looked great after the cleaning. They looked sparkling bright.

Not to sure about the inside.

I think it was a 50/50 mixture and they sat for a while..... like 48 hours or something like that.

I should go and find that article again or if someone knows where it is please post a link.

Bubber

[Rocket]

I too have read the article on cleaning carbs with Pine-Sol.

It had pictures too.

The carbs looked great after the cleaning. They looked sparkling bright.

Not to sure about the inside.

I think it was a 50/50 mixture and they sat for a while..... like 48 hours or something like that.

 

I should go and find that article again or if someone knows where it is please post a link.

 

Bubber

 

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=54671

[Yammer Dan]

Looks like Pine Sol is the leader so far. Any other ideas??

[dacheedah]

We used to get a gallon of Gunk Carb Cleaner with the basket inside( about 30.00) , pull the carb mostly apart and set in the basket. Put the lid on and suspend it off the floor with a bungee cord and set an aquarium air pump on top and turn it on ( no hoses just to vibrate). Then blow out with an air hose on low. We called it boiling carbs and it worked pretty well.

[Snaggletooth]

We used to get a gallon of Gunk Carb Cleaner with the basket inside( about 30.00) , pull the carb mostly apart and set in the basket.

 

Sadly most the decent carb cleaners that we used to get are no longer on the market. EPA considered them too caustic. Either the product was diluted down for the market or removed from the product line.

 

Nuttin' is as good as it used to be........except SeaFoam.

[yamtom]

Hi,

I think I got most of the info from Kats Karb Kleaning { sp } over at the xs11 list, but I have used the original formula pinesol, straight, just take out the jets and soak, maybe for days,, I take them out every day and clean the works with the hottest water you can find, then blow thru every hole with spray carb cleaner, but its likely that air blowing thru will do the job too. The keyword over at the eleven list is TRIPLE cleaning, and thats pretty much what it took for me. I have done two sets of XS eleven mikunis and a zuki 11 set with pinesol, all to good effect. And for what its worth, I had never worked on carbs before except to synch.

 

Be VERY SURE to wear some kind of eye protection when blowing thru those tiny holes. Dont put rubber or plastic in any kind of caustic carb cleaner, but pine sol wont hurt them. Also, there are some who, say the lemon pinesol, and the generic chinese pine cleaner you get in a dollar store wont work, so I used genuine pinesol original formula. It costs a bit more, but ten bux should cover it, and thats less than a quart of the yammie cleaner that works about as well.

 

I also have used the yammie carb cleaner, diluted half and half with water with about the same results. But yammie cleaner costs five times more.

 

Clean every hole three times, do a bench synch, and put em back on, start it up and synch, after some initial spits and stutters while the orifices are filling, the synch should do the rest of the job.

 

Be sure to return all parts to their original installed carb, dont mix em carb for carb, they wear into their original installation. Buy four baking pans to keep the parts separate, at the dollar store or wherever. I used a five quart plastic storage bin for my flat four eleven hundred carb sets, but you can prolly find another bigger one to do the bulkier V carb s setup on the venture. I just soaked everything whole, with the small parts out of course including the diaphragms but without taking the mounting parts off the unit. Have fun.

Edited December 13, 2011 by yamtom
forgot to use some words

[dacheedah]

Thats right, baking pans are great to work on, everything needs to be ultra clean, no linty rags or paper towel. I would just suggest doing one at a time.

[Daveand Barbie]

Pine-Sol FTW!!!

 

I have cleaned 5 or 6 sets of carbs for Honda Nighthawks, and this really works! I got the initial information from an airline pilot from Denver who owns the Nighthawk forum. I seem to remember he said he got the info from some A&P at the hangar. This is what I do:

 

1. Remove carb bank.

2. Remove float bowls, floats, jets, and slides(to be soaked separately)

3. Place bodies in a Tupperware tub with full strength PineSol to cover everything

4. Soak for 24 hours

5. After soak, spray with HOT water and blow dry. I use HOT because it evaporates faster

6. I soak small parts in a basket along with the bodies

 

PineSol will not attack anything aluminum, rubber, fibre, brass, or any other material, so it is completely safe to use. It will, however, leave things very dry so I usually spray some light oil around before putting things together or storing them.

 

This fix has worked every time I have taken a set off and had to clean.

[dacheedah]

I have to try the pine sol thing, makes sense.. . .

[jasonm.]

I have found the Gunk gallon basket to be great. BUT all gaskets and rubber MUST be removed. So- it's agreed..PineSol is a real good degreaser and quite safe. But does it desolve the VARNISH left by old gas in old carbs that have been sitting? As I have used Seafoam...which did nothing to varnish, after soaking for hours. I may just buy some PineSol and try it on some OLD carbs that a caked with varnish.