Well I synced the carbs replaced the plugs and rode her for about 1k then put her away i thought for a short time. turned out to be about 9 months.. medical issues. Now started her up and she will not idle without full choke, and dies when i give her gas. From reading the past threads I put sea foam in the gas and let it idle for about 20 minutes, and repeated for a couple days.
Not a lot of improvement. Tonight i pulled the carbs and the bowls have alot of residue in them and small flecks of something.. dosen't look like rust, but they are on the floats and in the bottom of the bowls.

now to the questions, do i have to keep the same bowl on the same carb? reason i ask is i would like to put the lot of them in a bucket of sea foam and let them soak.
second will the sea foam hurt the rubber o-ring like gasket on each bowl? if at all possible i would prefer not to remove them from the bowls as that is when damage happens, for me at least.

finally i am guessing i should go ahead and pull the jets since i am this far along. This is my first carb cleaning so i am nervous about getting everything right and not making things worse.

Any pointers or instructions would be greatly appreciated.

James

 

Ok i removed the main jets and cleaned them out only one had any type of blockage. the pilot jets i could not see through. i ran carb cleaner through them but still no go.

Should i be able to see through these? the shop manual does not say. i sprayed from both ends and there might be some getting through, but it is hard to tell with all of the over spray. the floats look good, sprayed them down, pulled the float pins and checked the float needle on each nothing obvious there either. the only thing so far was the float bowls having a build up of gunk in the bottoms of each one.

So i guess it is on to the top end to check the choke and rubber diaphragms? since it is late here i will pick this up tomorrow.

Any pointers would be good.

 

You are not alone, I have the exact same problem with my bike. Yesterday I drained the gas and added 2 gallons fresh and seafoam, was able to get it to a point where I could hold throttle at 2k rpm and just let it run but still can not get it back to idle. I hope someone has some insight because I would like to get this bike running again.

 

Sorry Hotswap , don't know a thing about carbs and cleaning , but a lot of the guys on here really know their stuff . I'm sure you'll get some good info soon

 

The pilots are usually what's gunked up on carbs. I would think you should be able to see through them with some light behind them in a low lit area.
I would soak them really good and go at them with a really thin wire or something.... or maybe get a new set. They make jet cleaning kits, too, that have different sized little wire reamers.
Also, an air compressor blow gun can help to blow them out. You may need to physically get in there and clean them out, though.

 

I wouldn't be trying to poke anything through a pilot jet. They are just too small & very easy to damage. Soak them in carby cleaner & comp air. If that doesn't clean them then replace them. Just remember that the hole is tiny. Also don't remove the pilot screw unless absolutely necessary. If you do remember that they are matched to each carbie & count the number of turns till they bottom out & put it back exactly the same. They can be reset & it's not hard but it is a little finicky. The Haynes manual tells how it's done (section 4 #20). One thing also is that the seals around the shafts dry out & leak. A little bit of Vaseline softens these & they seal again. I do mine a couple times a year. Good luck.

 

You can see through the pilot jets, but you have to work at it. It is easier to see from the big end to the small. I agree, put nothing in the jet, too soft and small.
I have had my carbs off four times since Aug. I purchased the bike used and moisture had caused a lot of rust in the tank. That issue has been resolved but trash contaminated the entire system. Little by little I am getting it all out. I have cleaned and cleaned with carb. soak, spray, and compressed air and still have not removed all the very small stuff. The pilot jets are only about #40, the mains are 140-150, so you can see how small there are.
The last cleaning I used the carb spray and removed more trash from under the seats and in the fuel line "T" fittings, compressed air @175 psi. would remove it.
Before I spent the money on new ones, I would try carb spray, be careful it may spray in all directions, protect your eyes.
Good luck

 

Tomttt, I'm guessing you've installed an inline fuel filter by now, right?
If not, you probably want to do that to keep as much crap out of your carbs as possible. That way, you shouldn't have to clean them as much.

 

where would you install the filter and from what model bike should i pick it up from? Thanks

 

Tom1000F, you can use many aftermarket inline filters. It doesn't have to be bike specific. I would get one that you can see through, though, that way you can get an idea of it's condition and what's getting caught in it. You want to install it in the fuel line somewhere between the petcock and the carbs.
Just do a search on ebay for "clear fuel filter" and pick the one that you want that has the correct size barb ends for your fuel line ID.