Carb cleaning for lazy people

[Vaughn]

Hello

I'm not sure if this is posted elsewhere but I found an easy way to clean out the carbs without removing them, this might not unblock jets I'm not sure but it definitely cleans the float chamber a treat

Before I start I would like to mention that carb cleaner strips paint as I found out the hard way so when draining it off make sure you use a bowl to catch all the runoff

Ok so you will need a can of carb cleaner, it must have a little nozzle or this won't work.
Get a piece of silicon tubing like the air line for a fish tank roughly 1ft long.
Connect the tube to the nozzle on the carb cleaner.

Right so that was simple enough, next remove the tank and drain the carbs by undoing the drain screws underneath. I left mine overnight with the screws undone.

Once drained take your can of carb cleaner and attach the other end of the silicon tube to the drain nipple on the bottom of the carb like so

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1378402886.410381.jpg

Then I gave the can 10 little blasts of not even a second while holding the tube on the carb, then lock of the screw and repeat on the other 3 carbs.

When I got to the last one I undid the screw on the first carb and drained the cleaner, it came out red, then drain all carbs and repeat this until it comes out clear.

Here you can see the colour it came out

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1378403091.524197.jpg

Sorry it's not the best of pictures but you get the jist of it.

When you are happy that the float chamber is clean you can go about putting it back together but don't bolt the tank on just connect the pipe and sit the tank on for now, get some fuel into the system let some drain from the drain holes to try and flush any carb cleaner out, I found to get the fuel through I had to turn the ignition on and press the starter button a few times, if you use a long extension bar with a socket Allen key you can turn the drain screws with the tank on.

So when your happy its clean and you've locked off the screws fire her up and get her warm, get yourself prepared with a 10mm socket and ratchet then turn the fuel tap off and pull the tank off again but keep the engine running.

Now remove the top of the airbox and air filter, grab your can of carb cleaner and give a little spray into each of the inlets, this caused my engine to flood and stall so don't spray too much in or you'll forever keep having to start it, just little bursts.

That's it simple. Obviously this is not as good as removing the carbs and cleaning them properly but I'm lazy, I don't know how well this would unblock jets either but one things for sure my float chamber is a hell of a lot cleaner now.

[jimsym]

Decent writeup but I have no idea why you didn't just do a proper job and remove the carbs. Faffing about with hoses, bowls and extension sockets if anything is time wasted.

[Vaughn]

Decent writeup but I have no idea why you didn't just do a proper job and remove the carbs. Faffing about with hoses, bowls and extension sockets if anything is time wasted.

Thanks
I know what your saying but like I said though I'm lazy, and I didn't want to strip the bike down the day before I was due to ride it for the first time, I was draining the carbs and getting all the old fuel out anyway so it was no bother.

Just thought this might save someone a job, maybe if they had cleaned the carbs properly already and thought there carbs just needed a quick flush out and didn't want to go through the bother of stripping them down the carb cleaner trick might come in handy that's all.

I'll think about whipping the carbs off some time soon though and give them a good clean up and get a new seal kit for them

[ross46]

i dont think it't too bad personally, though if i drained it out and it came out red then i would probably take apart and clean properly, but a nice quick way of doing it, tank off, hose on, squirt drain done, might try this to test how well it works, ive got a set of carbs on my bike which are coming off for ones that have been sonicated, so might do this then strip to see how well it works. nice one vaughn

[Vaughn]

Well this is what the carbs looked like when I got them apart

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1378717732.858879.jpg

You can see all the rust and crud in the float bowls, I reckon the carb cleaner did a good job, was probably a lot worse than that before.

I think it's definitely more suited to clean carbs that just need a quick flush out though.
I should have done 2 carbs with the cleaner then could have done a comparison with the other 2

[ross46]

thats what i was thinking, i'll do it tomorrow as i should be getting my new ones back, i'll do 2 with your method and leave 2 alone for a proper clean, mine shouldnt be too bad

[Vaughn]

thats what i was thinking, i'll do it tomorrow as i should be getting my new ones back, i'll do 2 with your method and leave 2 alone for a proper clean, mine shouldnt be too bad

Did you try in the end??