cleaning a whole rack of carbs?

A friend of mine told me that some auto parts stores have carb soaking kits that come with a bucket and solvent I think. Has anyone seen kits like these?

Bicycle Lee; In your first post you mentioned getting 28mm carburetors. I believe the pictures you posted are 26mm single inlet pumper versions. If I'm correct, the 28's have two screws on the caps and the 26's have three. I need to know if I'm wrong about this because I'm bidding on a set as I type. Either way, you need to know for jetting. Please straighten me out on this one and ride safe, Steve

shighley wrote:

Bicycle Lee; In your first post you mentioned getting 28mm carburetors. I believe the pictures you posted are 26mm single inlet pumper versions. If I'm correct, the 28's have two screws on the caps and the 26's have three. I need to know if I'm wrong about this because I'm bidding on a set as I type. Either way, you need to know for jetting. Please straighten me out on this one and ride safe, Steve

26 s and 28 s from the same basic time frame have 3 screws holding on the tops....he could very well have 26 pumpers...the only way to really know is measure across the engine side inside diameter.....

just checked and the digital caliper confirms: these are 28mm

rkan try not to use those carb soak kits as only a last resort you have to remove all rubber componets as the carb soak will deform and destroy the rubber wich usally means completely spliting the carbs apart and removing every componet making sure that you get any rubber parts out.

timebomb33 wrote:

rkan try not to use those carb soak kits as only a last resort you have to remove all rubber componets as the carb soak will deform and destroy the rubber wich usally means completely spliting the carbs apart and removing every componet making sure that you get any rubber parts out.

I was thinking the same thing, and since all the rubber parts of these ones seem fine, I figure why fiddle with it.... and potentially fiddle it up? Haha

I have done the lemon juice thing with great results and would recommend it if doing a complete tear down. From the pics you posted i think i would remove the bowls/jets and clean w/ aresol carb cleaner and compresed air as previously stated. If you do tear them down make sure you replace the o-rings on the fuel tubes that connect the carbs.

good luck!

harm wrote:

I have done the lemon juice thing with great results and would recommend it if doing a complete tear down. From the pics you posted i think i would remove the bowls/jets and clean w/ aresol carb cleaner and compresed air as previously stated. If you do tear them down make sure you replace the o-rings on the fuel tubes that connect the carbs.

good luck!

when you say O rings, do you mean the rubber hoses themselves? the little wire hose clamps? What do you mean?
And do you mean, do the aerosol cleaner thing and THEN boiling the lemon juice thing? Should I remove the floats as well?

If you're going to boil in lemon juice don't even worry about using any aerosol spray. In my experience, trying to use just spray cleaner usually results in having to pull the carbs off at least once more because no matter how diligent I am with the spray cleaner and compressed air I always end up with at least one passage that doesn't clean out all the way.

The O rings are inside the carb assemblies, and if you dip in a carb cleaner or other chemical such as that the rubber gets eaten away right along with the crud that's gumming up your carbs. With lemon juice you don't have to worry about that, so you don't have to tear the carbs down off the rack and replace those (unless you've already got bad O rings that are leaking fuel). IMHO you should get yourself a big roaster (one of those cheap tinfoil ones would do the trick) and enough lemon juice to cover the carbs (find a cooking supply store near you, you'll be able to get large quantities of lemon juice cheap there). Set up a burner outside(side burner on a grill would work, so would a little propane camp stove) and boil them bad boys out.

I'd pull the bowls and top covers, remove the slides if they are free, pull the floats and needles, and then boil the rest for 15 minutes. Rinse them real good afterwards and dry with compressed air. Put the bits back together and you're golden.

send us some pictures when you are done as i would like to see the difference between lemon juice and ultrasonic cleaners i have never heard of lemon juice until now but it does make sense and if nothing else it will smell good when your putting them back together. even if you have been doing this crazy job as long as i have you can still learn something new everyday.

Here's some shots of mine, the flash on my digi made them look way more chalky than they actually are. They got a little chalky after boiling them, but after rubbing them down with some PB blaster they took on a much more normal color. The bike runs amazingly better after boiling them out. It was running good before, after doing a pretty thorough spray bottle carb cleaner (B12 Chemtool from Berrymans), but after the boiling all the hesitation from the bottom end that I'd been fighting with tuning out has been gone. Anyway, here's the pics:

Sorry i wasn't very clear in my post. Boil them OR use aerosol carb cleaner is what i meant. When i boiled my carbs i disassembled the rack but i suppose you could do the rack as an assembly as anarki650 suggested. I replaced all of the o-rings in the carbs to reduce the possibility of leaks