carb cleaning, no dip no ultrasound methods?

[Seaking]

Happy New Year! Hoping some experienced folks here might help me out with carb cleaning issues encountered here.. We can't get carb dip products in Canada, only spray cans. However, when opening up the carbs on my GS650G project bike, I found a mess of goo inside the float bowls from dissolved pilot jet rubber plugs in all bowls.. this coated a lot of the other jets and float mechanisms etc. what a stinky mess from 3 year old fuel and what ever it was that melted those plugs. Some of the o-rings on the interconnect tubes are also soft and gooey as well, fragments in odd weird places.. what a mess.. The float pivot mechanisms are crusted over with something brittle, not rust but it will come off.. almost..

Seeing how I can't use carb dip and don't have access to an ultrsonic cleaner, what would be my next option to get these carbs cleaned out properly? I'm thinking of perhaps dropping them in a boiling solution of "insert suggestions here" to get rid of the sludge, residue and gooey rubber..

Suggestions? Below are pics from #4 carb.. the rest are a little to more worse..


http://www.eastcoastphotos.com/gs650g/num.4-carb-a.jpg

http://www.eastcoastphotos.com/gs650g/num.4-carb-b.jpg

 

[SONICJK]

I have heard good things about boiling pinesol original. But do it too long and you'll screw your carbs,

You could toss them in the mail to Rich Ard and have him ultrasonic clean them....

 

[Seaking]

Boiling pinesol.. how long is 'too long' ? What kind of damage could you expect from over exposure?

Would simple hot water boiling be enough and without damage? This is something I've not tried before.

Thanks for the reply.. Happy holidays!

 

[hunterkey]

if you jut boil them in hot water with a little bit of dish soap that will help. I use the spray can carb cleaner all the time. I have also cleaned carbs in a bind by soaking all the metal bits in mineral spirits and then rinsing them and blowing them out with a compressor. I ruined a crab by boiling in lemon juice. It was too acidic and ate away at the metal

 

[Seaking]

Thanks for the tip. I found a Canadian guy who can do the whole thing at a great price, which includes ultrasonic cleaning, re-assembly ect. Basically, I get the carbs back ready to mount and run with all new seals and gaskets etc.. Having taken apart the first carb, I got my 'learning' in on how these work and a better appreciation what to look for before I pick up the next bike (if it ever smells like this one did, give it a pass)

And I think I found out what melted the rubber plugs.. Most likely it was ethanol in the gas (the green colour) that melted the rubber and softened the o-rings. Sitting a few years with that fuel in it didn't do the carbs any favours. Rubber from the 'old' days apparently don't react well with today's ethanol fuels.. One of the reasons I burn premium in my other bikes.. and in this one.. I dunno..

 

[hotrodcharlie]

Use Pinesol, I did and it worked well for me. Here are a couple of videos I did cleaning some Mikunis.

1st vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sfOhvdIWTc

2nd vid https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8vNhAH8WxU

Good luck to you.

 

[Rich Ard]

n't do the carbs any favours. Rubber from the 'old' days apparently don't react well with today's ethanol fuels.. One of the reasons I burn premium in my other bikes.. and in this one.. I dunno..

Unless you're seeking out a place that sells non-ethanol fuel, you're just throwing money away hombre

 

[Seaking]

Unless you're seeking out a place that sells non-ethanol fuel, you're just throwing money away hombre

On my other bikes, the added expense of premium over regular is offset by the better mileage I get. I did some tests on it a couple of years ago and found I could go further on a tank of premium than a tank of regular. On the touring bike, the difference in price is only 80 cents per tank for a typical 17L fuel up.. (prices fluctuate weekly here). I'll spend the 80 cents for a better ride.. Around here, only premium is ethanol free.. most regular is at least 10% ethanol, medium is hit and miss.. and all that changes with the seasons..

You'd think gas is gas regardless of where you are but having travelled across Canada and the US a lot, the grades and quality vary enough to notice it on the bike. The ethanol free website tracker states all of Nova Scotia is ethanol free, but they're behind on their updates.

Cheers

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Never heard of BOILING in Pine-Sol, only soaking... and that with good results. I don't know what pine-sol boiling would be like.

... I ruined a crab by boiling in lemon juice. It was too acidic and ate away at the metal

I bet he was never the same... should boil them in water then squeeze a lemon on it and dip them in a little butter... Yummy!

Seriously though. Lemon juice as a carb cleaner is very common, especially by our mates "Down Under" where you can not get chemicals easy. I have boiled several carbs in lemon juice but not STRAIGHT lemon juice. Maybe that's where yours failed.
First, use your spray carb cleaner and a toothbrush and get the loose grime off them as well as possible then....
Get a bottle of pure lemon juice, not imitation, and a gallon of DISTILLED water. Put your stripped carb body and assorted bits in a large coffee can, pour in about 3/4 - 1 cup of lemon juice and then add enough distilled water to completely cover the carb an inch or more to account for evaporation.
NOTE: Use a fresh batch for each carb.
Fire up the Grill and boil it outside (stinky) for about 30 minutes. Pull the carb body out and spray it off with carb cleaner and a tooth brush. One time, I had a carb I was doing turn gray after I forgot and left it on for over an hour or more : but with some extra scrubbing and carb spray it still came out nice... Have never had it damage a metal.
Here is a before and after example of a set I did this way. You can compare the one circled that has been boiled in lemon juice solution as described to the other 3 waiting to go in next.

 

[surffly]

Not to put to fine a point on it, but if you are befuddled by the liquid to use while cleaning then maybe the actual cleaning of the passages is something you might want to just pay a professional to do.

 

[Seaking]

Not to put to fine a point on it, but if you are befuddled by the liquid to use while cleaning then maybe the actual cleaning of the passages is something you might want to just pay a professional to do.

And to which I have lined up.. the whole kit and ka-boodle.. I'm able to do most of the work but not able to get into the little nitches and passageways.. Sometimes ya just gotta know when to hold 'em and when to outsource 'em

Methinks my next winter project bike will be a twin or single lung engine bike.. you'd think I'd learn with a vtwin and a v4 in the stable.. sigh.. GL1200 next? Hmmm

Cheers!

 

[joburgbrawler]

I will definitely be trying the lemon juice trick, although on my spare carbs first, will post the results for sure

 

[D4N63R]

Where in canada is this fellow that is doing your carbs? May look into having mine done as well.

 

[firsty]

Get a bottle of pure lemon juice, not imitation, and a gallon of DISTILLED water. Put your stripped carb body and assorted bits in a large coffee can, pour in about 3/4 - 1 cup of lemon juice and then add enough distilled water to completely cover the carb an inch or more to account for evaporation.
NOTE: Use a fresh batch for each carb.

hey Hoosier
not being a big coffee drinker I don't have coffee cans and we work in litres not gallons down here in Australia so what is the ratio of lemon juice to distilled water, is it 1 cup lemon to 6 cups water ?
thanks firsty

 

[Hoosier Daddy]

Firsty that would seem about right actually. I did a quick google on it and saw answers ranging from 1:1 all the way to 9:1.
The way I have done it it isn't an exact science. Depends on the size of the carb and the water it displaces... but to say on the average, your SWAG is pretty darn close.
Wouldn't hurt to have a pair of tong ready and start pulling it out and checking it after 10-15-20 minutes to check the progress.

Back to the OP, I just actually checked your pics, that example isn't really bad at all, how much worse to the "bad" one? The one in the photo should come clean with a can of spray carb cleaner. After completly tearing it down, use the supplied red tube and spray down every orfice / passage and follow up with a compressed air with a rubber tipped blow gun.

 

[Seaking]

Back to the OP, I just actually checked your pics, that example isn't really bad at all, how much worse to the "bad" one? The one in the photo should come clean with a can of spray carb cleaner. After completly tearing it down, use the supplied red tube and spray down every orfice / passage and follow up with a compressed air with a rubber tipped blow gun.

Happy New Year, Hoosier.

The spray carb cleaner wouldn't touch the black stuff on the jets, it wouldn't even clean out the bowls when left sitting over night. I was able to soda blast the bowls out nicely but its acting like a sealant down the ports and passages. Weird stuff. I've arranged to have the carbs sent out for ultrasonic cleaning and rebuild (he has all the parts there if needed). The crud inside the bottom of the carb parts isn't something I'd seen before, so I'll bite the bullet and have them proffessionaly done.