I went to the local dealer yesterday to find out how much a tune up would cost.

they quoted me $1000 Can, !!! They told me they would have to rebuild the carbs, replace the shims etc etc.. still seems uber steep.

What does a full tune up actually involve? And what should be the avg price?. At these rates im allmost feel like i should buy the tools/parts myself and have a crack at it.

The otherthing mines a 1990, are the specs differn't from the manual available here, being that it's from 1987?

 

nope same specs. It has the 90 specs as well as the 87-89 specs. Your carbs are a bit bigger but thats about it. As far as what theyre quoting you, they're probably going ape**** and replacing the shims under the fuel needles (waste of time). Man seriously, just get the manual and do it yourself its not THAT hard. You just dont separate each carb, leave them assembeled in the rack, you can even leave the throttle plates in (which I advise cause theyre a bitch to get realined.. Take the bowls off, unscrew the jets and clean them, take the floats out and the needle seat and clean them, take out the diaphrams with the needle jets and then spray the carbs down good and blow compressed air into every passage you can see. throw them back together, set the fuel mixture screws to 2.5 turns out. If you want it to run real good set the float height to 8mm (shouldnt be too far off, but you never know) and youre pretty muchs done, throw them back on the bike and see how she works. Might have to reset the idle but thats normal. I can now have my carbs out and back in of the bike in 15 minutes.

Now as for the 1000 Can, yea thats about right if you live in ontario or out west, labour rates out there are retarded, which is what youre basically paying for.

For a full tuneup they're going to:
Clean Carbs (replace parts as necessary, most likely they will replace them anyways to make more money), Set Your Valves, Change Your Plugs, Check Your Air Filter (Theyll probably replace that too), Set your tire pressures ad give the bike a good look over.

On top of that youre going to be paying shop fees as well
Coolant
Carb Cleaner
4L of Oil (Genuine Honda)
Oil Filter (Genuine Honda)
If they break any screws in the carbs, you'll be paying for them too.

I took my gf's 250 ninja to JUST get the valves set here in NB and it was $400. (they jammed us too but whatever)

Its always best to do your own work. Ive saved myself at least 5000 in work by doing it myself. The sad thing is with most dealerships now, they dont want to work on our old 'JUNK' as most of them call it. The one here in SJ, if it aint a Harley, they dont really care.

So heres what I think you should do.

Clean your own carbs, even ifyou have to do it 2 or 3 times its still saving you money.
Change your own oil, Crappy tire carries oil filters and oil, get MOTORCYCLE 10W40 its only $4 compared to hondas $9
Change your own spark plugs, get them from honda though, only use factory spark plugs in ANYTHING you own. NGK DPR8EA I believe, but get them to look it up anyways, might be different where yours is a 90.
Leave the side fairings off when you take it to the dealer.
When you take it to the dealer (After youve already done the carbs) Get them to Only Sync the Carbs, and Set The Valves, might save you a few hundred on parts and labour.

you'll still be paying for coolant, and if youre valve cover gasket is in good shape, it can be reused.