Carb rust

[mbrood]

I was in the process of overhauling the carbs on my 86... I had thown in a heavy dose of SeaFoam and shortly thereafter it started really acting up... but mainly #1 cylinder was really not wanting to fire.

 

I had drained the bowls and took a week or so to get back to them and then broke them apart and opened up #1... and when the fuel bowl cover came of... look what I found in the bottom...

 

http://bergall.org/temp/venture/carb-rust.jpg

 

Yep, that BROWN stuff is rust. Everybody put down your hands... it wasn't the tank. It was from the fuel overflow pipe. Just above the bevel at the top of the picture, the inside of the overflow was coated in rust. #2, #3 and #4 look fine, dull but clean.

 

That tiny idle jet (37.5) looked opaque on all four... rather a light brown, but almost clear... when I tried to blow through them, it didn't work. Seems part of the problem was easy to solve.

 

I also found the enricher diaphragm on #1 had RUST. Now it's the right rear so I thought it would more protected from the elements but that's what I found...

 

It may be a rare case of "Mike gets the good one"... but it's an easy check for you guys that get that filter housing off to pull the overflow lines and look inside! And of course, mine had four totally different lengths of overflow hose... come on... put your hands down... the front carbs take ONE length and the back carbs take ONE length... I have four separates... and one (by golly) seemed to be the right length... the others were varying degrees of too short. And yeah, #1 was the shortest.

 

My day for weird I guess.

 

Nromally I would just soak the jets and bodies in cleaner and then use carb cleaner to blow them out. This time I called around and found a "speed shop" that would ultrasonic clean them and the jets for $20. And believe me... it's a world of difference. What looked like a human hair opening in the tiny jet now looks like you can fit three and everything is CLEAN. Strangely the bath didn't get rid of some of the aluminum oxide where the rack bolts go but everything else was sparkling. The regular motorcycle shops wanted $80-$150 for the bath and blowout... shop around.

[Squeeze]

Good Job Mike, i recommend the Ultrasonic Cleaning. The Outcome is really better than anything i've used and done before.