I've pulled the carbs out for cleaning. I just took off the first float bowl and it looks really clean inside. Does this mean that the carbs do not need cleaning? (I'd rather not disassemble the rest if they are in good condition already)

Secondly, lets say I do clean the carbs, do they need to be re-synced?


Thanks for all your help. the DIY's on this forum are really good for someone who is feeling adventurous.

 

Generally, just because the float bowl looks clean, does not mean the carbs are clean. the jets themselves get gunk built up inside of them and that restricts the flow of gas. Your also going to want to remove and clean the pilot jet ports and jets. Just remember to bottom them out counting how many turns it took to get them to bottom out. that way, you can reinstall them by bottoming them out, and turning them back the same amount so you get them in the same spot. Just remember to bottom them out gently. You don't want to do it with force or it will ruin the seat of the jet.

As for resyncing, its not needed as long as you left the carbs on the rack and didn't seperate them, as in pulled all four together. If you seperated them, or messed with the adjustment screws, (the ones between each carb) they will need to be resynced.


what issues were you having that made you want to clean the carbs?

 

thanks for the info justasquid, luckily i removed all the carbs in one shot.

the bike wasnt running as good as when I got it a few years back and I dont think the carbs have ever been cleaned, so thought it was worth a shot trying to clean them out. plus the bike is over 10 years old (the mileage is about 26k kms)

also i'm having trouble pulling the retaining pin out of the float, any tips?

 

I generally use a toothpick to push them out.

 

good idea.. thanks I'll try that out

 

what most shops do rather than clean the jets is just new ones. look into buying a slow speed/idle/pilot as that gets clogged the easiest...

 

I've had good luck just pushing gumout through them and then blowing them out with an air gun. (rinse repeat if not totally clean)
But yeah, you could order 4 new jets and swap them if you wanted. Probably $30-40 or so.

 

When my bike had carbs, I bought an ultrasonic cleaner from Harbor Freight and ran everything through it. The cleaner was $50 but wasn't large enough to hold the carbs as a whole. I had to split them in 2.

But the that $50 cleaner with a mixture of Simple Green and water demolished the gunk in the carbs. IDoDirt did the same recently and reported similar results. If you're going to be cleaning the carbs on a regular basis, it simplified the job incredibly.