Pine Sol for carbs

Ran across this on the net and looks like a good cheap way to go
www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=560117

Not sure I'd put the rubber parts in there. If Pinesol is Pine Oil and Alcohol...the alcohol can be bad for rubber part's life expectancy...

Bet it smells better than boiling them in lemon juice, though!

Yeah, and the lemon juice ruined the finish on my 550's carbs. Too acidic. They look nice until you thouch them, and your fingers turn grey. Tried polishing them and lubin' then up with wd40, nothing helped. Ended up with different carbs, but mainly because of other problems...

I suspect something like pure Simple Green would do similar or that orange cleaner stuff.

apbling wrote: Yeah, and the lemon juice ruined the finish on my 550's carbs. Too acidic. They look nice until you thouch them, and your fingers turn grey. Tried polishing them and lubin' then up with wd40, nothing helped. Ended up with different carbs, but mainly because of other problems...

Interesting - I had no issues with mine. I used a 50/50 solution. Must be something different in the finishing or the material used when they were cast?

Maybe. I used straight lemon juice concentrate. The 550 carbs do seem a little different than other carbs I've dealt with...not sure the composition/coating. I did throw a tiny bit of oxalic acid in my ultrasonic bath the other day for the heck of it. Started to smoke/fume off a bit and I could tell it was attacking the finish already. Oxalic acid is pretty weak, and I had to mixed really dilute too!

Interesting... I may try this on a set of BS34's I have that are pretty nasty. Will disassemble first and see how it goes and report back.

I'm interested in what you find out Boost

wnna hear a funny one...i have an old spare set of 26 on the 900 and the insides is where i was cleaning....

but iwas spinning in circles sat and had a good size wire brush...think wood shop...or file cleaner....and i hit the 26's outer carbs and bowls scrubbed em like i was brushing teeth...being mouted...and being as it is older paint on the bike and not cherry....i could really go to town and work that wire brush with two hands...they look///i know///it is only the outer sides that folks see for now...but they look about 30 yrs younger...it gets the wire burnishing way into all the 90* and dead in castings circle wedges...the thing is my new method...i woder if they could be clamped in a home made yoke....of 2X6 and then mouted so they could be shoe shined and wire brushed with vigor......no chems...hits all the knooks...look new

They are soaking!!! I took a bunch of before pics I was gonna post and not a damn one saved to the camera... WTH! OOO well.. take my word for it.. they are nasty.. lol

We shall see..

Ok, guys... 36hr soak, here are the results.


Only before pic I have of them...


The Soak..


A lot of funk coming of..


After..






After a little time on the wire wheel..

Over all I would give the process a 6~7. Super easy, nothing harsh, but the results are not fantastic, but pretty good. Did a real good job on the surface rust and the internal smooth surfaces. Cleaned the outside nice, but still will require some brushing.

It might help the process to brush it and soak it for a bit longer. These carbs are pretty rough, so I was not expecting miracles, but it did a better job then I expected. Overall if you need just a general cleaning it should work just fine for you.