1st Gen & 2nd Gen New member

VMAX  Forum

Help Support VMAX Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Jsr94vmax

Member
Joined
Dec 18, 2023
Messages
5
Reaction score
3
Location
Brandon, Florida
VMax Year
1994
I have a yellow 1994 Vmax that has 2 into 1 supper trap pipes and a stage one jet kit. The motorcycle shop that worked on it screwed it all up. It fouls plugs out like crazy and I went from about 100+ miles to the tank to 71+/- a tank. It also seems that the carbs were never synced. I would love to change it back to a normal carb setup. Would like to find someone local that could work on it but if not I’m open for suggestions.
 
Wow thanks to everyone replying to my thread. You guys are great and I’m glad I’m a Vmax rider/owner. I’m definitely going back to the original carburetor setup. I miss the days when it ran like it should. Merry Christmas to all of you and have a Happy New Year.
 
Thank you so much for your reply. I appreciate your willingness to help but if it’s not cost worthy I definitely will not do it.
 
I think what Jackhammer may have been saying is that for him the cost for you to have him work on the bike would require shipping your carbs back and forth and that the cost of parts and labor plus shipping is too expensive.

Try contacting the people whose emails I put up as they all do work by mail. Getting the carburetion and synchronization correct is definitely something that will make you much happier with the bike than something that runs poorly and leaves you frustrated.
 
There are differences in doing carburetor work.

This is what I believe could be considered. Bear in-mind that as work proceeds, faulty parts needing replacement drives-up the cost.

First, the economy go-through. This is nothing but a clean-up of the carburetors. Complete disassembly, time in an ultrasonic bath, and reassembly using new gaskets only if necessary due to the old ones ripping, and maybe four new float needles (#36, below). OEM parts, or from someplace like K & L.

Second, the 'economy' work, but facing worn or defective pieces, replacement is necessary for those parts. This can cause the price to raise quickly. Using OEM parts is always the best path, but there are some work-arounds. An example: the CV diaphragms are bad on a couple slides. Yamaha does not sell these diaphragms! They sell slide/diaphragms as a single part. Part #9.

2007 Yamaha V-MAX (VMX12W1) Carburetor | Ron Ayers

Diaphragm Assy

1FK-14940-09-00

Retail Price: $201.99

Your Price: $159.04

Got that? Want to replace all four, because "if one is bad, or two are bad, the others are prone to fail soon." "That will be $636, please!"

1703262333587.png
There are aftermarket places you can buy the slide diaphragms by themselves, and swapping out the slide diaphragms is its own delicate task. The slides are brittle, especially in something like a part manufactured 38 years ago, and used since then. So, have the cash ready to account for breakage in an attempt to save you $ by attempting the replacement of the diaphragms on OEM, used for 38 years slides.

Want to 'cheap-out?' Try some Chinese parts, good luck with their longevity. pay 33.90 for four slides/diaphragms. The price differential makes you want to try using these instead of OEM, yes? Caveat emptor.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2255...f0bab5&afSmartRedirect=y&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
1703262951251.png

Another source:

https://www.amazon.com/Membrane-Diaphragm-Carburetor-41R-14940-00-00-1FK-14940-00-00/dp/B07RRV5DM1
$23,59 each, quite a difference from the OEM! Slides and diaphragms. Caveat emptor.

You have torn enricheners? Part #12.

1703263662970.png
Diaphragm Set 5

26H-1490H-00-00

Retail Price: $73.99

Your Price: $55.89 That is each, four are used for this set of carburetors.

https://www.ronayers.com/oemparts/p/yamaha/26h-1490h-00-00/-diaphragm-set-5
1703266821032.png
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3232667151...Un8tJqzdQIdJa3+bV8C3OQzRY=|tkp:Bk9SR8760qmSYw
$39 from this vendor, and he only has two. Note that many bikes use the same part. It's the K&L part # you want to search-for trying to find them online.
Air Cutoff Valve
K&L part # 18-2808

A partial list:
1703267026925.png
1703267074467.png
Remember this is a partial list! Thanks to CaptainKyle for providing the K&L part #.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

From this you can see that buying all-new pieces from an OEM source could easily cost you approacking $1,000! That would include numerous rubber O-rings and other pieces. Normally the float seat being brass, doesn't need to be replaced, unless you have a high-mileage bike, it's usually the float needle spring which weakens, or the rubber viton tip of the float needle (part #36) which wears-out.

This is one of those times that living a clean life, drinking your milk, and eating all your vegetables, may pay-off. You only need the minimum. However, you need to be ready for the surprise of replacement being necessary for some expensive-from OEM source parts being added to the bill. You can try going for the aftermarket Chinese stuff, but especially for the 'all-four carburetors in one brass jet kits,' do not use those! K & L and All-Balls carry quality replacement parts for our carburetors, use the search function on our forum for them.

Understand that a neglected set of carbs can end up being an expensive rebuild, especially going all-OEM. You might be better-off buying a rebuilt set of carbs from one of the guys I mentioned previously.

I hope you see that each set of carburetors may present a differing set of needs, depending upon what is worn-out.

As a last mention, do not forget that installing a new set of carburetors onto a bike with a rusty gas tank is useless! If you have a rusted tank, or a tank someone did a crappy job of coating the interior, where the sealant is peeling-off, your expensive work on overhauling the carburetors is wasted! Be sure to address cleaning your gas tank if it needs it. There are many threads on that here. Some ways to accomplish that are:

Evaporust
electrolysis
cleaning vinegar
pressure cleaning
radiator shop cleaning

Choose one. They all work, some with differing timeframes to accomplish the same thing. A word of caution: remove the fuel level sender, and replace it with a steel blank-off plate and some silicone sealant to make it watertight, unless you're totally-immersing the gas tank, in which case you are still removing the fuel level sender but can use the opening to allow the cleaning method to circulate better. The sender is made of potmetal, german silver, or a zinc-based casting material, and something like cleaning vinegar will destroy it! So, just remove it.

I hope you see that there are different ways to get what you want, and the overall condition of your carburetors plays an important part in the work.
 
Last edited:
This is the realistic situation with a Vmax carb rebuild. Additionally to this, balancing and fine tuning the carbs needs to be done on the bike itself.
 
If someone wants to have the carbs rebuilt and balanced, you send the entire bike to the mechanic, not just carbs. Anything short of that is just, well, short of what it could be. Nobody is able to balance your carbs on the table and send them back. Nobody.
 
I agree that 'sending the bike' is a good idea, but you can save a substantial amount of $ by mailing the carbs, enough to pay for a set of bourdon tube gauges to perform the final 'on the bike' balancing by yourself, if you remove/replace the carburetors yourself.
 
I’ve taken the carbs out before and used a friends sync gauge but with the stage 1 kit it just doesn’t want to sync up and run right so it’s time to set it up back to normal carbs. I plan on buying my own sync gauge’s and I do have a shop manual so wish me luck.
 
There are differences in doing carburetor work.

Don't know if anyone here has done this but if you have a deformed diaphragm or one that doesn't want to seat properly you can use tape (no,not duct tape😆). Just make sure the tape is on the seal(about 1/8") and not the thin area. Then, barely snug cover with all 4 crews(don't forget your O-rings) just to where you can wiggle tape back and forth. Go gently and don't tear it when pulling out(that's what she saido_O) then tighten.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20231225_015727929.jpg
    IMG_20231225_015727929.jpg
    1.8 MB · Views: 0
Back
Top