awesome thanks a lot.

 

Hello:

Used your fine sticky to pull carbs on my '93 F2 and having a laptop nearby with your procedure loaded up was extremely helpful!

Here are a couple of additional tips that may be useful.

Pulling the carbs off the manifold:

There's a black, triangular bracket on the right side of the frame, just above the clutch adjustment. It's held on by three bolts and pulling it off makes reaching screws on boot clamps #3 & 4 much easier.

Nearly everyone seems to struggle pulling their carbs off the intake, especially the first time. I learned this tip on another site (just before I was ready to give up :-). Use two (2) tire tools or similar flat ended levers to alternately and GENTLY pry on each end of the carb assembly between the frame rails and the edge of #1 & #4 carb body. There is a substantial lip to bear against on the carbs and by SLOWLY applying alternative pressure to each end, one or the other fill finally pop off (or the carb will crack). HEY, I said SLOWLY and GENTLY, not more than 1/64" at a time. Sounds risky because I suppose it is, but with patience it works...and beats the heck out of the sheer muscle approach...I'm sure many F2's could hang by their carbs from a chain lift :-). YMMV and the first time is the worst, but this works...be patient and it's a 5 minute job. BTW, the first 25 or so alternate levering exercises may not seem to do anything but things finally start to move. BTW, did I mention

SLOWLY and GENTLY ?.

And a bit of light grease inside the carb boots on reassembly and next time they will leap off by themselves as soon as the clamps are loose :-).

Also, regarding putting the carb assembly back on, use a bit of light grease, align the carbs over the intake stacks and starting at one end or the other, use a small hammer to GENTLY tap a block of wood over the (protected by a rag) carbs to GENTLY push them into place. Work back and forth, a little at a time. The site I stole this idea from said use a long block to drive all the carbs on together, but that did not work for me so, in the immortal words of Frank Sinatra, "I did it my way".

BTW, all this hammering, levering and blocks of wood business may sound kinda "Fred Flintstone", but carefully and judiciously applied, will get the job done...even on something as delicate as carbs. YMMV.

Another minor issue. In the picture showing red arrows to 1) Main jet, 2) Needle jet and 3) Pilot jet. Looks like arrows 1 & 2 are pointing to the main jets on both carbs shown and arrow 3 is pointing at the pilot jet. And the poor old needle jet don't get no respect...no arrow :-(.

Speaking of pilot jets, watch out for the tiny O rings on the adjustment screw. They tend to stick in the bore and fall out at inconvenient times.

Overall, I give this sticky an A+ (just missed an A++ :-). Great job!

 

Yeah, I used a crow bar on my carbs lol... I am not sure if I mentioned that in the sticky, but if I didn't then it was probably out of fear that someone would over do it. Like you said, slowly and gently lol.

As for the jet names numbers and arrows... I used the shop manual, and it does not even name the 3rd jet that I didn't name. The manual shows the smaller jet as Slow Jet, and the Main Jet screws into the Needle Jet Holder. Why it calls it that, I have no clue, because one page later it calls the diaphragm that holds the Needle a "Needle jet holder" as well. lol.

In the long run, it doesn't matter what it is called. take it apart. clean it. tune it and call it bacon and eggs if you want. :P

 

This write up is great. I do have one question. I have a 94, and it seems like after riding for a while during the day (half an hour or more), the bike starts to lose power. It won't die, but you can definitely tell it doesn't have as much umph as when I first start riding. I am going to tear into the carbs this weekend for the first time since I've had it (three years). Is there anything in particular that might cause an issue like this that I should look for? Thanks.

 

Your bike is running too rich.

 

Did not read through every single page, but would just like to add that your float height is very much a part of your carb cleaning as well. Done by simply adjusting the tang on your floats with a small screwdriver.

 

Yeah, sounds like you might be running rich. pull your spark plugs to see what they look like.

 

I will pull them this weekend and take a look. I'm running a kn filter and two bros exhaust. I guess I will find out if it has been jetted when I take it apart. I bought the bike the way it is.

 

Hi, can you point me in the direction of the screws i need to adjust to sync my carbs. Thanks

 

>
1. Pilot/Slow jet adjustment screw
2. D shaped adjuster tool.

Pilot jets control how well your bike Idles, comes off of idle, and operates at cruising speed around 4k RPMs

*TIP* If you don't have one of these dumb tools, you can get a mini hack saw, or a hand grinder dremmel tool type thing and cut in a small slit down the center of the Pilot screw. This makes it adjustable with a standard flat head screw driver.
>

I like ur trick to avoid the D tool... BUT the screw is recessed into a channel. To cut a slit, I'll have the cut into the channel that houses the pilot screw. Is that OK?

Do I need to even take apart the pilot screw? my bike idles really well.

I'm only cleaning the carbs 'cause there were a couple seasons of improper storeage and I plan on syncing the carbs. There is a slight hesitation when I pull the throttle hard from a stop. The carbs in general look pretty clean but I'd disassembling and cleaning anyway.

The F3 has ~30K miles.