How to Clean a Motorcycle Carburetor, the RIGHT way.

I get asked about Carburetor Cleaning regularly both from readers and from friends offline. So I’ve decided to write a definitive guide for cleaning carbs the RIGHT way. So put your tools down for a minute, grab a beer, and give this a read. You might just save yourself a lot of headache and sweat.

Carbs come in many shapes and sizes. Single carbs, dual carbs, racks of 3, 4 or 6, V racks, carbs with ticklers, carbs with accelerators, carbs with asynchronous designs, and carbs that operate vertically. While working on some carburetors is more difficult (due to design) than others, they all share the same basic components, and the process of cleaning those components is generally indentical.

BEFORE YOU START

Make sure that dirty carbs are actually your problem. Lots of things can make a bike run poorly or not start. Weak battery, corroded electrics, old spark plugs, bad timing, low compression, mis-adjusted valves, dirty air filter, and plugged exhausts can all cause poor running. I’ll write an article on how to diagnose poor running conditions shortly, but for now – lets just deal with the carbs.

OK, SO YOUR CARBS ARE DIRTY

Once it has been determined that the carbs are the problem it’s time to get to it. Some racks of carbs are easier to remove than others. If you’re working on a newer model bike the rubber boots from the airbox to the carbs and the manifold boots from the carbs to the motor should be relatively soft and pliable. On older bikes however this is rarely the case.

First remove the fuel tank, seat, and side covers. Depending on your model of bike other parts may need to be removed too. ร‚ย For many single cylinder bikes the carb can often be removed without removing any body work at all.

The bike below is a 1983 Yamaha XJ750 Seca with 4 inline Hitachi carburetors

1983 Yamaha XJ750 Seca Carburetors

Yamaha XJ750 Motor and Carbs

You’ll want to loosen the circle clamps on all of the rubber boots. Sometimes I’ll even take them all right off (carefully, without bending them too badly) so that they aren’t in the way.

Inspect the airbox. On many bikes it is bolted in place to tabs on the frame. Remove those bolts and try to create as much space as possible for the airbox to pull backwards.

Next, put the bike on it’s centerstand and straddle it facing forward. Put your right hand on the right-most carburetor and your left hand on the left-most carburetor and get ready to sweat. Sometimes you’ll be able to pull the carbs straight backwards nice and easy, but that is pretty rare. I usually end up rotating them up then rotating them down as best I can while pulling backwards furiously. This can really take some work and time, especially if you’ve never done it before. In real extreme cases where you simple can’t get the carbs to pull backwards out of the manifold boots I have a couple tips. These tips should only be used in extremely difficult cases when you have been struggling for an hour and simple can’t get the carbs to pull backwards out of the manifold boots.

Tip 1: Ratchet Straps – This is sort of a last resort, but it has worked without fail for me when I’m pooling sweat on the garage floor and the carbs aren’t budging. Wrap a ratchet strap around one of the outer carbs and put the hooks somewhere on the rear of the frame. Then slowly ratchet the carbs right out of the boots. Be careful not to pull them too cockeye’d or you could damage the boots. Attach a second ratchet strap to the other side if necessary. (Note: you can do this in the opposite direction to force carbs back into the boots once they are clean.)

Tip 2: Full Pull! – You should do this before you do the ratchet strap method above. Sit down on your butt along one side of the bike. Wedge one of your feet up between the forks and the front fender, then put both hands on the same outermost carb and PULL PULL PULL! This might not work so well if you’re short! Ha.

Ok, So The Carbs are pulled back

Chances are the airbox boots are all crammed up now. Do your best to rotate the carbs up and out from the boots and pull them out one side of the bike. Sometimes it’s easier to pull the carbs out one side than the other, so have a look to see if there are frame elements, motor elements, or hoses that may block the carbs from coming out on one side.

Also keep note of the throttle cable(s) and choke cable (if there is one). Now may be a good time to loosen the nuts that hold them in place and disconnect them.

Struggle just a couple more minutes wriggling the carbs out the side.

Ok, You have the carbs off the bike

Yamaha Hitachi Carbs

Make sure you brush off any loose dirt or grime, then flip the carbs over and remove the screws from the corners of the carburetor. Some carbs won’t have bolts in the corner and instead have a wire latch over top which can just be forced over.

Yamaha XJ750 Carburetor Bowls - Hitachi

Remove the bowls.

Hitachi Carbs Bowls Removed

If the carbs are real gummed up the insides might look like this:

Hitachi carb insides gummed up

It’s obvious that these carbs are all clogged up. Some carbs might not look so bad, some might be a lot worse. It’s always a mystery what will be inside the bowls.

Now it’s time to remove the floats. It’s generally a good idea to drench everything in carb cleaner (available at any autoparts store). Sometimes the pins will practically fall right out, sometimes they’ll be so stubborn you won’t think they’ll ever come free. But they will! Carefully push on the pin from either side. Sometimes a nail and a gentle tap from a hammer is helpful. **BE CAREFUL**, using force to remove a stuck float pin can break off the pin tower. If they are really stuck and you can’t seem to work them free here are a couple tips.

Tip 1: Heat – Adding a little flame to the float pin towers can help. **Don’t Burn Down Your Garage!!**

Tip 2: Pliers – Using pliers to gently clamp the end of the pin and push it through has worked well for me in the past. **Don’t break the towers!!**

Once the float pin is out you can remove the floats, the float needle, and unscrew the float jet screen.

Yamaha XJ750 Float Jet

Set everything aside. Next remove the main jet, pilot jet, and idle jet (if there is one). They should come out easily with a flathead screw driver.

Removing Main Jet and Pilot Jet from the Carbs

Set them aside.

Next flip the carburetors back over and remove the caps. Underneath the caps is a rubber diaphram with a spring. Sometimes the caps have a tendency to shoot off the top, so be very methodical when removing the screws. Other times the cap tends to stick down until you start to pry at it, then it shoots off, again, just be cautious and don’t loose any parts.

Carb diaphram, slide, and spring.

Next you’ll want to gently pull the slides up out of the carburetor body. You can gently pull on the rubber diaphrams, but be very careful not to tear them. If they don’t come up easily stick your finger into the carb intake and push the slide up with your finger. You can also gently pry it with a screw driver (gently). If it doesn’t want to budge don’t force it. Instead finish reading this article and pay attention to the boiling tips further down.

Main needle and throttle slide.

Now your carbs should be pretty well emptied out. If the throttle on the bike moved fluidly and smooth there is little reason to do much to the carb bodies themselves. However, if the throttle was real sticky or frozen there are a few things you can do to free it up. Sometimes just drenching all the throttle components on the carbs and letting it soak is enough, other times it is not. I generally try not to break racks of carbs apart. It isn’t often necessary and can be confusing to put everything back together in the right places. Also, the little rubber connector hoses and o-rings have a tendency to crack or leak if you mess with them. If you can’t work the throttle back and forth until its smooth have a look at the boiling tips further down.

Keep it Neat

Organization pays off.

Carburetor internals organzied

Clean the Main, Idle and Pilot Jets

Hold each jet up to the light and see if you can look through it. The idle and/or pilot jets have extremely small holes so make sure you are looking through them straight. If you can see through the jet it isn’t clogged. There could be a little gunk built up around the edges so spray them down with carb cleaner and let them sit a bit.

If you can’t see through the jet it is clogged and needs to be cleaned. Always try the easiest things first. Here’s an ordered list of a few things you can do to clean the jet.

  • Blow through it. – Rarely works, but hey, who knows.
  • Compressed air. – Force 100 pounds into it. Works occassionally. Make sure to hold the jet tightly so it doesn’t go flying across the garage. You might put the jet back into the carb body to hold it in place for this.
  • Soak it in cleaner. – When I first started cleaning carbs I thought carb cleaner would be the magic answer. It isn’t. In fact, I hardly ever use carb cleaner any more, because it simply doesn’t do a very good job of anything but removing varnish from the bowl and slide. But try this.
  • Poking it through. – Collect a few different diameters of needle like objects. A wire from a steel bristle brush works well, a bristle from a broom works well, a baby pin, small sewing needle, etc. Very gently try to poke it through the jet. If you are using a metal needle use caution, brass jets can scratch and deform easily.
  • Boiling! – This works better than anything. Toss the jets into a pot of boiling water and let them bounce around for a couple minutes. When you pull them out blow some compressed air through them and you’ll most likely be good to go.

Some idle jets can be real tricky and never seem like they’ll be cleaned out . . . Just keep working at it, I’ve never met a jet that couldn’t be cleaned.

Cleaning the Choke and Air Mixture Screw

Air mixture screws have a tendency to strip or break. If the carbs were real gummed up you might find that the air screws are stuck. Don’t force them, if they don’t want to come out, just leave them for now. It is fairly rare that these screws will need to be cleaned because they are above the float level. If you can get them out just wipe them down with carb cleaner and spray some through the jet.

Cleaning the Slide and Needle

These are easy to clean. Squirt them with a bit of carb cleaner, wd-40, or anything similar, then wipe them down with a rag. Once the varnish is gone they’re good to go. Sometimes they get heavy varnish on them which I will scratch off carefully with a piece of plastic. Scratching the slide and needle is a BAD thing, use caution.

Cleaning the Carb Bodies

Use the same squirt and wipe method noted above. Most of the time the other pressed jets and passages in the carburetors won’t be clogged. But if the bike has been sitting a real long time with squirrels in the airbox it is certainly possible. Us a compressor to blow some air into every passage you can see. Listen for the air coming out the other side. If no air compressor is available use a can of WD-40 with a straw attachment.

If some of the pressed jets are clogged it can be difficult to open them up. There are a few things you can do.

  • Carb Dip – Most autoparts stores sell carb dip. It comes in a can similar to a paint can and is a VERY harsh cleaning agent. Soak the entire carbs in this dip. This dip can eat at rubber and plastics if they are submerged for too long, so try and remove everything you can from the carb bodies before soaking them. Once you pull them out swish the carbs around in a bucket of water to clean off the excess dip, then hose them down with WD-40 to get rid of the water.
  • Boiling in Water – Not many people do this but it is by far the best way of cleaning carburetors. Dropping the carbs into a pot of boiling water will instantly free up stuck slides, throttle plates, and other frozen parts. It will also loosen the dirt and grime clogging up pressed jets and other passages. Just make sure to dry the carbs thoroughly with compressed air or the sun afterwards.
  • Boiling in Lemon Juice – There is NOTHING BETTER at cleaning carbs than a giant pot of boiling lemon juice. The acidity from the lemons eats through everything; gas varnish, oil build up, dirt, grime, etc. Sometimes I won’t even bother doing anything but this – I’ll just remove the bowls, remove the caps, then drop everything into the pot and let it sit for 20 minutes (rotate them a few times). The one caveat to doing this is that you’ll want to wash the lemon juice off the carbs as soon as you pull them out. So have a bucket of water ready, or a can of WD-40 to hose them down. Also note that the acidity has a tendency to put a dull finish on the aluminum bodies of the carbs. This isn’t a problem in most cases, but if you must have everything shiny be prepared to do a little scrubbing and polishing afterwards. It may sound weird, but trust me, I just saved you LOTS of time. (Most dollar stores sell 1/2 gallon jugs of lemon juice, so buying a few gallons will only cost you $6. Plus you can put it back into the bottles afterwards and save it for next time.)

Cleaning the Bowls

This is pretty straight forward. Use any of the methods above to tranform your varnished bowls.

Dirty Carb Bowl

Clean Carb Bowl

Most carb bowls are simple, just clean them up and they are good to go. But I picked this Hitachi’s for photos because they have a jet built into the bowl. You can see the ‘fifth’ hole along the edge of the bowl, that is actually a thin passage that extends to the bottom of the bowl. This is for the idle jet and is extremely important. If these passages are clogged, the bike won’t stay running, period. Use the same poke, soak, and boiling methods outlined elsewhere in this article. Not all bowls have these passages, only some, if your’s don’t – good for you!

Once Everything is Clean

Now that everything is clean it’s time to put it all back together. Take your time and make sure you put everything back where it came from. WD-40 is your friend. When screwing in the jets don’t over do it, they only need to be seated and snug, do NOT use any force putting the carbs back together.

Hitachi Carbs from a Yamaha XJ750 Cleaned!

If the bowl gaskets got goobered up you can put a little RVT on them. So long as the float needles are still in good condition leaky gaskets shouldn’t be an issue. However, prudent carb tinkerers may want to order replacements if necessary.

Once the carbs are back together stuff them back into the bike!

Completely cleaned and reassembled carbs.

Extra Notes

  • Rebuild Kits – This guide did not mention rebuild kits until now. Rebuild kits (consisting of new gaskets, jets, needles, etc) can be purchased for nearly any bike, both old and new. 95% of the time these are NOT needed. I have rebuilt enough carbs to block off main street, and only once have I used new parts. ONCE!
  • Carburetor Adjustment – Carburetor adjustment, setup, jetting, and synchronizing is a whole encyclopedia waiting to happen. Those topics are not covered in this article, but I will address them in future articles.
  • Carburetor Polishing – External carb asthetics will be important to some, and not to others. Cleaning is all I am covering here, this will be addressed in the future.
  • Work Space – Make sure you have lots of space to keep organized. I also like to work on a wooden surface because it absorbs the spilled gas and cleaners rather than pooling.

That’s it! You’re Done!

I’ll continue to write a couple more related articles about diagnosing carburetion issues as well as the proper way to adjust, jet, and tune your carbs.

ef

By ef

Hey, I'm Evan and this is one of my motorcycle sites. You can find more about me on my homepage, or visit me on Google Plus: +Evan Fell

211 comments

  1. The only thing I would add to this article is; No matter what, never let your wife know you are using her pots to boil a carburetor. She almost killed me!!
    Really, thank you so much. I was amazed how clean the carb looked and even more amazed that the bike idles better and does not bog down.
    GREAT ARTICLE!!!

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Bwuahahaha! You’ll definitely have some pot scrubbing to do if you get caught!

    Glad to hear you had success with your carbs! Cheers to that.

    [Reply]

  2. That’s a great tip! I’ve also been hearing good things about Pinesol lately.

    [Reply]

    Kevin Reply:

    Regarding pinesol, see http://bamarides.com/rideforum/projects/the-honda-cx-500-project/40/ for some actual results. Amazing!

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Thanks for the link. I’ve seen similar results in other reports – both with a simple soak and with boiling. I good old fashioned carb dip will provide similar results if left for a 24 hour soak, but it’s a much more toxic way to go about it. I’ll be picking up some pinesol and testing it for myself. Cheers.

    [Reply]

  3. Thanks for the kind words Eric. I’m with you – I’ve never had a bike, running or not, that didn’t benefit from having the carbs opened up.

    [Reply]

  4. You probably have:

    A) A float or two (or more) set too high

    B) Throttle plates that are out of synchronization.

    It should be noted that the above is in no particular order.

    Also – Make sure first and foremost that your idle is set all the way down and your throttle is connected and adjusted properly.

    [Reply]

    Bazz Reply:

    Hi,
    I got one of those mobile mechanics out to have a look. It turned out it was all put together correctly. What I’d done wrong was that I was adjusting the idle screw without twisting the accelerator handle, so I’d got the pin wedged into place. He just adjusted it with the throttle open and then it worked fine, too him 2 minutes to work it out! Still I learnt a lot taking the carb apart and the positive to take from the situation was that I hadn’t really made any mistakes anywhere else, so I feel confident I can clean carbs now! Cheers for the reply and for the awesome guide!
    -Barry

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Great to hear! Glad it was a simple fix and you’re back on the road. Cheers to that.

    [Reply]

  5. Hi I have bought a 1985 700 maxim water cooled it has been sitting for apr 2 years. following your simple instructions today I took carbs out, disassembled them, cleaned them w carb cleaner and put them back in in addition to that I disassembled and cleaned the petcock and drained the gas tank, which i refilled with fresh gasoline switched old for new plugs and bike fired up right away.. the only problem: the overflow tube of the left two carbs started dripping gasoline, So I turned off the engine and with the petcock in prime position it eventually quit dripping where’s the problem?

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Hi Johann,

    When a carb overflow is dripping it means that the bowls are getting more gas than they need. This is only caused by two things:

    1. The float is set too high

    2. The float needle is dirty or worn and not stopping the flow of fuel.

    I would drop remove the bowl and lower the float just a little and go from there.

    Cheers

    ps – If it stopped dripping on prime then you’re likely ok. Just make sure you check your oil for the presence of gas. There’s a possibility gas is still dripping but instead going into the intake and into the cylinder.

    [Reply]

  6. thanks for the quick response
    guess what
    this morning fired
    up the bike and more leaking
    however the idle
    goes
    up to 3000 when I pull the throttle and after
    a significant delay 5 seconds or so goes back to
    1000 rpm
    always open for tips as to how to tackle
    the fine tuning
    part ๐Ÿ˜‰

    [Reply]

  7. Thanks for the excellent procedure. Here are a couple more ideas that might come in handy during carb cleaning:

    1. Go to a music store and buy an assortment of steel guitar strings. Sizes from about 8 to 20 thousandths of an inch are great for (carefully) poking into jets. Cut them into useful lengths, and don’t forget to sand or grind the cut ends as smooth as you can, to avoid scratching the inner surfaces of the jets.
    When you are reassembling racks of carburetors prior to re-installing them, you can use one of the smaller guitar strings as a gauge to roughly set synchronization. Use the idle stop screw to open the master carb throttle plate just enough to slide the string between the plate and body. Then use the synch screws on each of the remaining carbs to set the same opening height, using the string as a gauge. Do this gently, to avoid scratching the throttle plate or carb body!

    2. Make a collection of small plastic straws and tubes. The red straws from WD-40 cans are a good start, though something a little larger is usually more useful. Small plastic tubing from a hardware store is good. Use these tubes to manually blow out clogged passages, and to check for passage of air in critical passageways after cleaning carbs. For example, the long and convoluted paths between the orifices on the circumference of the carb intakes, and the pilot jet passages in the center of the carb body. Push an appropriately sized plastic tube hard against the passageway, blow into the tube, and listen for the sound of air escaping from the internal jet housings. If one of the carbs passes air through a particular passageway but a second carb doesn’t, you know that more cleaning is needed on that second one.

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Wow Ron, thanks for this! These are some excellent tips.

    I keep a little bag of straws for things like this. Whenever I empty a WD40 or other spray can I save the straw. They have 100 and 1 uses, your notes are a great example.

    I’ve also done something similar before in regards to setting synchronization statically with a little gauge of wire. But your guitar string idea is probably much more precise. I’m definitely going to pick some up for my next carb tear down.

    Thanks for the tips.

    Cheers

    [Reply]

  8. Did you ever get a response to your questions? I had the same reaction.

    [Reply]

    Christian Reply:

    No, no one ever replied. In the end I used the lemon juice method anyways and it worked GREAT. In fact I now use lemon juice to clean all kinds of things.

    Here’s what I did in the end.

    I pulled the carbs apart meaning I unscrewd EVERYTHING that could be unscrewed. This produced a number of parts including smallish screws and gaskets. NO BIG DEAL. Don’t let the so-called experts scare you off. (I also take computers apart and those parts, especially screws, make the carb parts look like dinosaurs). There aren’t that many parts to a carb and it’s all pretty straightforward the way the parts fit together and all that and it’s hard to confuse one part for another because they’re all shaped very differently.

    I took all the parts and put them into a pot/pan full of concentrated lemon juice (straight out of a bottle I bought at the grocery store). Brought the lemon juice to a boil, reduced the heat and let it simmer for 15/20 minutes. The women in my house weren’t too fond of the smell though.

    Used tongs to remove all the parts which I then put into a bowl with cold running water. DONE.

    IMPORTANT !!!!

    I did NOT put any what I consider fragile parts in the lemon juice ie. floats, gaskets, other pastic / rubber parts. You wouldn’t believe how corrosive the juice is. Besides those parts wouldn’t benefit anyways. Clean plastic and rubber with something like alcohol.

    The lemon juice will really dull the metal surface. Use some sort of metal / aluminium / mag wheel polish to “bring the shine back”.

    I’ve cleaned three sets of carbs this way and it just gets better and easier.

    Your next challenge will be tuning the carbs once you’ve put them back together. Again this is not the big deal that experts make it out to be and there’s lots of videos on Youtube that give great instructions on tuning.

    Good luck mate

    [Reply]

  9. B-12(Carb,Choke & Throttle Cleaner) worked great for me!! Got a ninja 600 that was running badly!! started it up and followed the directions. It seems to be running good. It 100% done alot of good.I also added alittle Marvel Oil the gas, So them combo seemed to work. Just figured id post my experience.

    [Reply]

  10. Thanks for the site, I am glad someone did it right. Hope to see you in the big somewhere someday so I can shake your hand.

    [Reply]

  11. very useful for the do it yourself type, simple to follow instructions, dummy photos, very happy with this! Thanks

    [Reply]

  12. Hey Evan,
    So I followed your steps carefully, and they were incredibly helpful! I bought an old beat up ltd 454 from a guy who was slowly killing it.
    He tried to clean the carbs but synced them horribly and set the idle waaay too high. When I started this project the bike backfired so hard it would jump and sometimes even cut out. He also cut the old tubing and put in new ones but simply taped the two together at the splice.
    I reran all new hoses and pulled the carbs and soaked them in lemon juice. I also emptied the gas tank and cleaned the air boxes and put in new air filters (the old ones were so bad there were sticks in it with holes bigger than my thumb!?!?) now the bike starts fine and idles right however when I give the throttle pressure in any gear the bike cuts out. If the choke is on high the bike will still run but horribly bucks any time you give it gas. Any suggestions?

    [Reply]

  13. having a bad day today with the motorcycle, just wanted to say that this article REALLY helped me out and now instead of not wanting to look at my bike, i cant wait to go out and dive into it

    [Reply]

  14. This is amazing! I have a small landscaping company and my main mower has been running like junk. I’ve tried taking the carb apart a few times and spraying carb cleaner through it and blowing everything out with compressed air to no avail. I just took it apart again and boiled it in lemon juice and then into boiling water to get out the lemon juice. Rinsed it in the sink to cool it off. Threw it all back together and HOLY SHIT! It’s so smooth it’s unbelievable. I’ve been stressing about this so bad. I was considering buying a new carb for the mower……. $360!!!!!!!!! This method was a live saver. Thanks so much!!!

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Great the hear Sean. Glad it worked for you! Happy riding!

    [Reply]

  15. big thanks for this article, what a big help it has been for me and my 1999 honda shadow that has been sitting for some time. with this article and a little reading about adjusting the pilot and setting float height, the bike is running good as new again.

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Great to hear Mike. Cheers!

    [Reply]

  16. Hi evan,before I attempt the boiling lemon juice treatment can you tell me if it is safe on rubber?I will be stripping the carbs of jets and diapragms.

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Hi Gary – I’ve never had any negative effects on the rubber components. Just make sure you wash everything off well afterwards. Cheers.

    [Reply]

  17. your a life saver. I’m going to do the boiling lemon juice tomorrow. you said you sometimes just remove the bowls and caps and drop them in. Is it ok to boil the rubber diaphrams and plastic peices too?

    [Reply]

    Evan Fell Reply:

    Hi Bryan – I would recommend taking off the floats because they could get bent banging around in the pot. I typically remove the diaphragms too because they don’t need any special cleaning and will hinder the flow of lemon juice bubbling around.

    Good luck!

    [Reply]

  18. I took my carbs off and dove into tearing them apart like wildfire, bad mistake. Make a long story short I put them back together and it runs horrible. Under the diaphram is two jets one larger then the other, which one goes where. I am sure one is air and one is gas as they have different size bores in them.

    [Reply]

  19. This was an excellently written “How-to” article. I just bought a 1982 Kawasaki Kz550 that hasn’t been riden in 19 years. Can’t wait to start cleaning the carbs using your information. Thank you!!!

    [Reply]

    farrawayman Reply:

    I’m guessing you are the one who bought Larry’s GPs???

    He says you’re a very nice bloke, by the way ๐Ÿ™‚

    Nice to see you have been trawling google to look after your lady ๐Ÿ™‚

    Dave

    [Reply]

  20. I just got a used 1982 Yamaha Seca Turbo (XJ 650LJ) and it started and ran for a bit, I sent it in for a bit of fine tuning, and they bench synched the carbs, now it wont fire at all, any help here would be appreciated. All I really know about the bike is what I have done to it, replaced a bent valve, and sealed the motor after going back through it. Turbo works great by the way for a mitsubishi turbo, not too shabby. Message me at LanceBMobley@hotmail.com, if you want a pic of my bike, or can help. Thanks

    [Reply]

  21. Some good ideas there on cleaning carbs,
    But and its a big but you should never use a sharp metal object like needles to pocke holes,
    Your likely to cause dammage

    [Reply]

  22. I’ve never tried boiling carbs in water or lemon juice. Thanks for the tip, I will try those methods one day.

    With really gunked up carbs, I usually disassembly completely (including throttle shafts) and dip them in Berryman Chem-Dip.

    [Reply]

  23. This guide was fantastic, thank you very much. I have an ’82 Yamaha XS400R SECA that wouldn’t run without the choke, and wouldn’t let the RPMs climb.

    I found this guide and bit the bullet. After ripping the carbs apart I found a ton of junk. Put them back together and they leaked gas everywhere (I had the float needles in wrong), flipped them, threw my carbs back in, it’s like an entirely new bike.

    Once again, thank you for making this guide. It was fantastic, made carb cleaning easy.

    [Reply]

  24. yes can u tell me how to stop carbs from leaking out the airfilter gas shoot it to it i think it is one carb i taking them a part cleand the put new parts in the still the same thing

    [Reply]

  25. when boiling the carbs in water or lemon juice does it damage the o-rings and other rubber parts?

    [Reply]

  26. great walk thru im cleaning my carbs on a suzuki 1400 did u ever write anything on adjusting and syncing if you have could u email me a link to it thanks

    [Reply]

  27. I have run a motorcycle tire shop for 28 years and did quite a lot of other repairs to bikes including carburetors.
    You have covered the cleaning of carbs better than anyone I can thank of. What little I have learned has been trial and error,as I’m sure a lot of yours has been. I thourly enjoyed reading your comments. I Strongly agree with you. I’m 89 years old and still working at it.Thanks Tom G.
    ,

    [Reply]

  28. best tip for me in this article is boil the bits in water and a lemon juice. vinegar does the same thing too though. you can damage the jets if you poke them with pins and nails so first thing is throw them in a pot of boiling liquid for half an hour and then have a good inspection, ive cleaned quite a few carbs now and the boiling in acid like vinegar or lemon juice even moves oxiding. great article. many thanks for posting it.

    [Reply]

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