We went for a New Years walk and saw this -
- good a place as any to start a post on a carburetor rebuild.
I bought Randakk's carb overhaul dvd along with his rebuild kit - pure gold. The guy goes into so much detail and walks you through pretty much every step, from removal to disassembly to back again. And that's a good thing - there's quite a lot going on with these carbs. First off was to check that the serial numbers were all the same, which they were -
- internet tells me these are '76 LTD carbs. Which checks out, as the PO was in the process of turning the bike into a '76 LTD model. Anyone know of any major differences with the LTD carbs, or is it just the trim?
Not suggesting it was the last PO, but someone in the murky past had a very delicate way of remembering which carb part belonged where -
- and it quickly became apparent that his light touch did not end there. Pretty much every jet has been wrestled out with vice grips and a miserable attitude -
- some so much so that I'm just not sure how serviceable they are. The float needle seats are essentially buggered, and three of the four float pivots are either bent or chewed up. One of them was so bad that I had to dremel the thing off with a steel cut-off wheel it was jammed in there so badly, and I didn't want to risk breaking the pivot post itself. Figured finding new pivots (and possible a new float) would be easier than repairing the post itself.
Essentially a similar anatomy to the CV Keihin carbs on the DOHC CB750, but some significant differences too. I don't know if I'm a psychopath or something but I really enjoy working on carbs. These ones too, I just really enjoy the work. I'm not that organized, and my brain isn't exactly formulated to inherently know what to do with the things, I just enjoy the process. These are the numbers/sizes of the jets that came out of the carbs -
Meghan god love her is December last year. Need me a new Old Milwaukee calendar. Anyone got the skinny on whether those sizes are correct? Either way, most of them will need replacing if possible. The air jets are all ok (in terms of usability anyway - no damage) but the main jets are pretty roached. As are a few of the emulsion tubes (bent) but hopefully I can figure out a work around (thanks Pid). The needle seats by the way are a size 1.0 I'll definitely need new ones, they're pretty wretched.
Internals stripped-
With the throttle and choke linkages disconnected (up to a point) I then got the plenum halves separated, but needed to introduce them to an impact driver to make it happen. Could not budge the 5 bolts by hand for love or money. Plenum halves split -
- and carb pairs removed from plenum halves -
As suggested, I did not break the carb pairs into individuals - there's just not much point. I then deviated a little from the video and decided to dump the lot into the old Pinesol spa for a good soak -
and for once managed to get out of the garage without wearing the stuff. I'm like a magnet for Pinesol. Yeah, it's a problem. You can't get the stink out. It hangs around for days.
So that's that for now. Next I'll clean up the jets, seats and tubes as best I can but will need to hunt for some replacements. I want to avoid aftermarket jets as much as possible so if I can find Keihin then great. I think I'll have to stump up for OEM Honda needle seats, and that's if I can find them.
Happy New Year one and all.