Carb rebuilding

O ya silicone is the best. Just ask the guy (Rest In Peace)who rebuilt one of the last z1 bikes I bought. You can never have enough silicone can you. I don't see the need to blast the carbs but if you do it correctly it can be done. Now your carbs look good and I bet you won't find any beads in them. Obviously George needs to stop doing it that way.

 

 

 

The bead blasting is purely cosmetic, and adds a LOT of extra labor.  It takes a fair bit of time to mask up the carb, to minimize grit inside, not to mention blasting time.  VM carb bodies are zinc, not aluminum, and it takes some time in the cabinet to get them clean.  After blasting, the body gets scrubbed to within an inch of its life, to make sure no grit or grime remains behind.  

 

Ed since you have a lathe and do a lot of these, would it be worth turning up some nylon cones with a bolt hole through the middle to blank the throttle shaft openings (this is what I plan to do with mine when I finally get to that stage)

Wookie58 wrote:

Ed since you have a lathe and do a lot of these, would it be worth turning up some nylon cones with a bolt hole through the middle to blank the throttle shaft openings (this is what I plan to do with mine when I finally get to that stage)

Excellent suggestion, Guy.  I like the way you think!

BTW, I bought a larger lathe, and I'm currently in the process of teaching myself to weld, in order to make a new stand for it.  Lots of fuel Tee's, choke spools, and misc parts coming soon...

Ed - Speaking of nylon cones, you could try reproducing the nylon cone in the mid 74 and up fuel petcocks.  I don't think they are available anywhere.  

Scotty

Saw that photo of silicone scraps on the screen and it reminded me - when permatex first started marketing their RTV silicone "gasket maker" (their term not mine!) they had an ad campaign where they assembled a V8 (chevy I think, may have been a ford) using silicone in place of all the gaskets except the head gaskets.  But we never saw what ended up in the oil pump and oil pan!  

Scotty

I've vapour blasted every set of Z1 carbs I've owned and never had a problem with the glass beads afterwards.  The bodies just need to be thoroughly washed and then blown with compressed air to clean them out.  

Want to make those yellowed choke plunger thingies white again?  Vapour blast them!

hardrockminer wrote:

I've vapour blasted every set of Z1 carbs I've owned and never had a problem with the glass beads afterwards.  The bodies just need to be thoroughly washed and then blown with compressed air to clean them out.  

Want to make those yellowed choke plunger thingies white again?  Vapour blast them!
 

The thoroughly washed part is important.  We run vapor-blasted carb bodies & parts through an ultrasonic bath using just water and good detergent, then another detergent rinse in a tub by hand, followed by clean water.  Our true test is to place blasted & cleaned parts in a dimly lit space, then step back a few feet & shine a flashlight at them from eye level.  Any glass bead present will reflect light back at the viewer and be quite obvious.

Good Ridin'
slmjim & Z1BEBE

I'm a huge fan of soda blasting.
the biggest benefit is that its water soluble 

Move0ver wrote:

I'm a huge fan of soda blasting.
the biggest benefit is that its water soluble 

 

I soda blasted the cylinder head on my 750, to reduce the catastrophe of aggressive grit down into the blind oil passages.  I still washed the head to within an inch of its life, just to be safe.  Soda is not very aggressive, and once it hits the surface, it disintegrates, so not good for cabinet blasting; you can't see anything, and recycling the media is not useful, because it's mostly dust.  That said, if you can deal with a total loss blasting job, soda is great.

P1020014 by nessism , on Flickr