Cleaning carbs on the rack by boiling in lemon juice

go! said:
it may have been because it wasn't boiling the whole time
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How so? It just took a while to get it boiling because I was doing it on a small side burner on my gas grill, so as not to stink up the house. How would that cause a build-up of this hard residue?

Has anyone else that has experience with this method had this happen to their carbs?
 
project750 said:
How so? It just took a while to get it boiling because I was doing it on a small side burner on my gas grill, so as not to stink up the house. How would that cause a build-up of this hard residue?

Has anyone else that has experience with this method had this happen to their carbs?
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oh, i was thinking that you let it boil and then let it sit in the water a while after that, not the other way around. basically acid + water= water crystallization
 
im lookin to try this this weekend.. subatomic-punk, u didnt have any residue problems leaving it over night in a coffee can?

what was the ratio you guys mixed it in where you did have a problem?

ill try the less is more route dilouting it, cause seems like people have had success with it.
 
I diluted the mixture to 1 part juice to 6 parts water as someone earlier in this thread suggested.

Just so you know, that chalky coating has seized up all of my choke mechanisms and I broke one trying to free it up. I'm looking at used replacement carbs at about $150.

I know people say they have had success. But I would not do this again.
 
yea thats pretty rough.
I am curious to try it, and im going to use it on a parts bike im going to parting out online. So i may experiment with at least one carb see how it works. Yea i read that 1/6th ratio someone mentioned.. maybe ill use a little bit less..

These carbs are in pretty rough shape, bike is pretty well corroded so it would only be an improvement i guess..


Pete
 
I know this is an old thread and my very first post here but I thought it would be a good idea to share my experience since it went really bad.

So I came across this post looking for a good way to clean my CB360 carbs. It seemed to work for everyone but project750. I bought me some lemon juice, put a bottle in a pan with water an brought it to boil. I put one carb body in the mixture for an hour. Get it out and rince and brush it pretty well. Once tried I felt the carb to be rough, like medium sand paper. Tried to oil it with some WD40 but it did nothing.

It was like if the lemon juice had eaten the carb body. It seems that this thing is made of some kind of "concrete" which can me dissolved by the acid contained in the lemon juice. I looked in the pan and there was a big deposit of some fine grey dust (or chalk). It can't be something else than the carb body itslef.

If I ever want to use this carb again I'll have to sand/polish the inside of it to what it was before. Like it is now the slide can't barely move. Moreover, if that kind of dust ever make his way to the engine head, I would not want to see what could happen.

I'm lucky I just bought another CB360 today for parts so I can use his carbs. Maybe I put too much lemon juice in the mix (something like 1/1 ratio), who knows? But I can insure you that I'll never do it again!
 
There are two main material for carbs, zinc and aluminium.
Zinc reacts different.
Aluminium carbs are a lot lighter and also a lot more expensive, plus, corrode a lot more
 
Problem solved.

I went to the local auto part store this morning and bought the strongest carb cleaner they had. It was 50$ a gallon. I dipped the carb in it for 3 hours than hit it with a tooth brush and super degreaser. It took away most of the rough deposit in and on the carb. I used some 800 grit wet sand paper to soften the slide cavity. Everything seems back to "normal".

If I ever use lemon juice again, I will thin it to 1/6 like someone said before. 1/2 for one hour is way to much.
 
Hey guys, I am boiling my carbs right now using my wifes stove and pot! She is at work so hopefully I will get away with it! ;D ;D ;D
 
thelwthelw said:
Hey guys, I am boiling my carbs right now using my wifes stove and pot! She is at work so hopefully I will get away with it! ;D ;D ;D
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Thought I'd get away with this, but I got caught. May the odds be ever in your favor ;)
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Busted washing in the DW is priceless mang :o I dip in barymans dip exclusively and now sent to vapor blast if it's cost effective.

Pick whoring again: But ain't they sweet :P
 

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I recognise those cases as I've just rebuilt a 305. I didn't use dishwasher though


hurco550 said:
Thought I'd get away with this, but I got caught. May the odds be ever in your favor ;)
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crazypj said:
There are two main material for carbs, zinc and aluminium.
Zinc reacts different.
Aluminium carbs are a lot lighter and also a lot more expensive, plus, corrode a lot more
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I have done this to a several carbs and have had mixed results.
It seems like they either go 1 of two ways;
1. they darken up quite a bit and all the crud comes out
2. they turn light grey and get pitted

I have noticed every Mikuni i have put through and most Keihins have been fine, but I have trashed 2 sets of carbs and that is why I just use water now. I suspect these BS38s are high in zinc as they are quite heavy (6lbs) so maybe higher zinc alloys don't corrode as bad. These were boiled in 1/6 lemon juice for 30 min followed by 15 min in plain water, came out real clean. I followed with soda blast, because the carbs do get dark from the bath

IMG_0693_zpscdxqqvle.jpg
 
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