$50 mod thread

boom if you want man i can set this up at my house and you can use it... I have no problem with that... not a bad little set up man! let me know if you can't get that to roll wiht your compressor and i will set mine up for you. just let me know whats up!
 
JRK5892 said:
boom if you want man i can set this up at my house and you can use it... I have no problem with that... not a bad little set up man! let me know if you can't get that to roll wiht your compressor and i will set mine up for you. just let me know whats up!

Well I dont even have a compressor! Heh.. but Im willing to buy one if its inexpensive enough because its just good to have, even if its a small one. Cleaning parts and then trying to use a can of compressed air to get stuff out of all the nooks and crannies is annoying as hell. So it wouldnt hurt to have a small compressor in my shop anyways. However, it would be awesome if maybe we could set this up real quick at your place to test it out. Then I can know if its worth it or not to get a compressor myself. Sooo.. long story short: fuck yeah! When do you wanna do this?
 
Boom, a compressor is the best money spent on the shop space., next to a good work table and vise. I got a 12 gal comp from Sears on sale for less than 150 and I run everything from nail guns to paint sprayers, no problem. Just remember the larger the tank the less the compressor will run and that means less noise in the shop. Or, with the ecomnomy the way it is, check out the pawn shops and those cheesey "trader" papers could probably get one really cheap. A 25'-50' hose and fittings at Harbor Freight would run less than 25$, you're in business.

Terry
J'ville, Fl.
 
I tried out the soda blaster today. It works pretty good. It did a good job of removing the varnish from the carbs. My carbs definitely didn't turn out looking new like the after picture on the link. I did try it out in a little spot on my rear hub though and it was cleaning that pretty good. I'll try it out some more tomorrow on the hub but I think it may take quite a lot of soda to do it that way.
 
well, i finally have something worthy of sharing, but i dont know if anyone else has brought it up. Plasti-dip, its rubberized tool dip that costs about 7 bucks a 14 ounce can, and comes in a crap ton of colors. ill list off the applications. i took my levers and chopped the ball ends on the front brake and clutch, then dipped them a few times in the graphite grey for a real racy look, and it slips when you want it to, and grips when it needs to! ive also used these for when making custom wire looms, i literally dip the whole wire grouping in a 1" cookie sheet, then keep turning it like a rotisserie and hit it with a blowdryer. you can also use this to repair cracked clutch or throttle cables. when i swapped out my muffs on the 360 i lost the rubber stops for the bottom of the can where the kickstand hits. i taped off a square on the can, then used a paintbrush, and built it up. ive also used it on my seat mounts, because i am running 4 steel tabs off the top of the frame to where the fiberglass mounts. all i did was paint it on the top and it really makes the diffrence! they have many diffrent kinds from course grit to smooth and shiny. it also helps if you have areas that rub together, and tend to become rusty. clean up the area, dip or paint! this stuff is also semi sand-able, so go nuts!
 
Lemon juice!

So I'm cleaning up a rack of OEM Hinckley Triumph carbs that are slated to go on my XS850.
I stumbled across an article somewhere about using citrus to clean parts and decided to use it here and see how it goes.
The carbs have a grand total of 330 miles on them so there's no appreciable wear but they are gummed up because I was stupid and didn't clean them out when I put them away after going to flatslides on the Super3.

Anyway, it's ridiculously simple. Take the major bits off/out and soak the carbs and bits in lemon juice, you cna speed the process by warming it up on the stove if you have a pot large enough.

That's it, just lemon juice.

The rack of carbs was really gummy and all the parts that came from them had that icky gooey green stuff that comes from dead gas. I let them soak overnight then warmed them on the stove for an hour at around 150 degrees (use a candy thermometer...just don't tell your girl). After some light scrubbing with an old tooth brush and some simple green these things look like new, the throttle action is smooth again and all the jets and passages flow nicely!
Booyah!

Total cost: $10 for the lemon juice at a local restaurant supply joint by my shop(couple gallons), 30 cents or so worth of simple green and an old toothbrush. Ok...some flowers for the girl too...she caught me with her 'good' canning pot and candy thermometer.
 
that is how i clean all my carbs! just need an old dollar store pot and a little bottle of lemon juice! works awesome! you can even toss your jets in there!
 
JRK - do you use the lemon juice cold? or heat it too? Lastly do you just rinse them off or are you cleaning with the simple green after too?
 
i mix 1/4 juice to 3/4 water... boil the carbs in that for about 20 min adding water as it gets low... i did not use simple green... though do not see why it would hurt... it is great to clean stuff up... then i rinse it all off in the sink... blow it out with the compressor and done...
on stuff that is really really bad or when people tried to paint the carbs or something like htat i have a chemical dip that i put them in... it is basicly a big paint can with carb cleaner, put the carbs on the screen and leave them in there for a bit... take them out and rinse them... then do the juice and water treatment...
 
Will lemon juice clean the grey crap off a freshly dipped carb? I soaked my carbs in a can of cleaner overnight and ended up with a nasty coating of grey shit on the outside. I'm hoping there's an easy way to get this off besides a tiny wire brush?
 
it should man... you may also want to give that solda blast a shot that was in this thread a few back... seemed like a solid idea!
 
Update on the soda blaster. I tried it here and after swapping to a larger diameter chunk of hose it rocked the cassbah!
That grey crap on your carbs is actually the metal surface sluffing away, you'll want to be careful with that. My dad was cleaning some old ZG1000 carbs the other day and ended up ruining the slides, they lots a lot of material and now don't meter flow correctly.
He shoulda used lemon juice but he refuses to listen to me......old guys...what'er ya gonna do?
 
Hey what diameter hose did you go to? I used the 7/16" and it worked pretty good but didn't clean up the outside of the carbs.
 
Swagger said:
Update on the soda blaster. I tried it here and after swapping to a larger diameter chunk of hose it rocked the cassbah!
That grey crap on your carbs is actually the metal surface sluffing away, you'll want to be careful with that. My dad was cleaning some old ZG1000 carbs the other day and ended up ruining the slides, they lots a lot of material and now don't meter flow correctly.
He shoulda used lemon juice but he refuses to listen to me......old guys...what'er ya gonna do?
Hey swager, was wondering if you have any photos during/after the process. Also, what are your plans for the carbs ie:paint or clear etc..? My carbs are clean but they look like crap. I have to do something with them but I don't want to spend my life doing it ;) Thanks, Troy
 
I had to take my shocks apart to paint and polish. I'm not a big tough guy and could no push the spring down. So this is what I used. These cheap plastic clamps and have come in real handy. They can also be flipped and used as spreaders. Which I used to split the cases.

One quick not be carefull where the springs are pointed!!!!!!!

DVC00800.jpg
 
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