1980 Mikuni VM28SS Carbs

Hey guys,
I'm from Massachusetts and have recently acquired a 1980 Z1R. Prior to me picking it up, the bike sat for nearly thirty years. As such, I believe the carbs need some serious attention. However, despite looking through posts on this forum and the bikes maintenance manual, I feel all the necessary work that needs to be done is well beyond my skill level or expertise. I was wondering if anyone knew someone in the Mass/NE area that specializes in these carbs that I could have take care of them for me. Please let me know.
Thanks

A popular place to send carbs is Wired George, but his shop is in Texas. Surely there is somebody on the East Coast still doing them.

hi there always a history to a bike being parked for so long ,what sort of condition was it in when you got it any chance of a photo ,i have a d1 and for a 40 year old bike its very agile ,david

If the carbs were drained before the bike was parked they should be fine. If not they will need to be cleaned, but that's not a big deal. Ed

If you think they need to be worked on then go ahead and pull them off. Take a look at them after you get them off and see how bad they are. I was kind of in a similar boat with my KZ-1000 and decided to send them to a shop that OH'd them for almost $600.00. They still needed work when I got them back. After reading a bunch of stuff here on the forum it became pretty obvious that I could have saved myself a lot of money and no doubt done a better job if I had rebuilt them myself. They would have also looked a lot better if I had done the work, but that's not important. Try it yourself, at least the initial examination and see how they look, then decide which way to go. There's a lot of knowledgeable people on this forum that will help you out, just have your service manual handy.
Rick H.

I second what Rick said. They are not terribly complicated. But as you start taking them apart you should grab a service manual and read the sections on carburetors as you go. Take plenty of photos so that you can refer to them during reassembly if necessary. And ask questions. There are some pretty good carb guys here, and no question is too silly.

An initial inspection is pretty easy. Getting the rack off the bike is often the hardest part, especially if you still have the airbox installed.

Each float bowl has 4 screws. With the screws out you often need to lightly tap the side of the bowl with a plastic hammer to get it to pop off. Once you have the bowls off it'll be pretty clear what condition they are in. If they are filled with brown or black goop, you're in for some work.

Make sure to use JIS screwdrivers on the carbs. The screws are soft and the heads are easy to damage with standard screwdrivers.

Also, wired George is probably your best bet if you decide to send them out. Anyone local will be taking an unknown chance. Examples of his work I've seen have looked very good.

Wgcarbs.com