Is it okay to soak all the metal items in carb cleaner or mineral spirits?

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Ted J

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I know you don't want to do it with the diaphrams for the slides and just clean the needle and the coasting enrichener you just clean the metal on it as well, and obviously the o-rings you wouldn't want to either. But what about the rest of the metal parts, like jets and the such?

The carbs themself I'm going to clean them one by one and clean them as best as possible as I can and used compressed air to blow it out but wanted to know about the metal parts if letting them soak for a few hours would be bad or if I should just clean each part one by one, blow it out with air etc...

Thanks!

Ted
 
I'll defer to the carb experts, but generally nothing metal in a carb will be adversely affected by a soak in cleaner. Just be super careful to get all the little o-rings, gaskets, and clear plastic rings out.

What's the problem? Won't start, or runs poorly? A specific symptom, and we may be able to point you in the right direction. If you're going to tear down the whole rack, the carb rebuild stickys here can be invaluable information. Otherwise, we're here to help!
 
I'll defer to the carb experts, but generally nothing metal in a carb will be adversely affected by a soak in cleaner. Just be super careful to get all the little o-rings, gaskets, and clear plastic rings out.

What's the problem? Won't start, or runs poorly? A specific symptom, and we may be able to point you in the right direction. If you're going to tear down the whole rack, the carb rebuild stickys here can be invaluable information. Otherwise, we're here to help!

The problem is overall it's running like crap... have to us the choke to get it to idle right, low on power, bad throttle response, one cylinder seems like it's not firing (like the exhaust pulse is missing on that side) etc... (got new plugs for it I'll be putting in for I'm sure one or more is fouled as well)

After tearing them completely down I can tell you why... the float bowls aren't adjusted right, it's full of crude, they is a coating of varish on everything. Just overall bad news so a tear down, while I didn't want to do it, was pretty much needed.

I've read a lot if not most of the stickies but may have missed this part. Just trying to be as careful as I can be. I've worked on a few carbs before, luckly in those cases though I've only had one to work on. This 4 carb stuff is really making me rethink getting a motorcyle with a carb(s) again. I love my Raptor 700 and it's fuel injection even more now! ha ha
 
Carbs are curse and blessing at the same time. The curse, as you have discovered, is that when neglected or left to sit for extended periods of time, they get all crapped up, and the Vmax has some of the most complex carbs to ever hit a bike. And four of them.

The blessing is (versus FI), is that you can fix/tune them yourself. If a FI bike starts running bad, it's off to the dealer almost automatically. Probably some near microscopic conductor shorted out on a circuit board buried deep inside the bike. One of my friends has a Suzuki M109 that developed a bad hesitation at all RPM's in throttle response....off to the dealer, and several hundred later to replace some sensor it's fine again.

I don't really have a problem with carbs, since as long as you use the bike regularly and put it away properly, you really should never have a problem.

The symptoms you describe seem to be common among bikes that sit for long periods of time, and procedures called the "shotgun" and "peashooter" are detailed on this site (search for them), which clear the typically clogged circuits causing the problems you describe. It's not foolproof, but does have a pretty good success rate when done right. I guess it's not of much use to you now they're all torn apart.

Anyway, good luck! Tearing into a rack of Vmax carbs is not for the faint of heart, of those prone to losing small parts.
 
Isn't that the truth, the curse and a blessing at the same time. I figured out what the issue was now. Rust in the tank and it's gotten into the carbs and caused issues! Coated everything. I knew when I opened up the drain screws on two carbs and nothing came out that I was in for a tear down. I was going to start off with the shotgun etc... but it's just been my luck with carbs that there's junk in the float bowls when I buy something! I opend up a YFZ450 carb and there was like a coating of dirt in the bottom of the float bowl!

I did lose one piece, one of the little c-clips for the throttle linkage flew to the side of my work space and I'll probably never find it so I'll have to order a new one but I'm buying new seals and the such anyways so not such a a big deal.

Here's a picture of my fun! LOL You can see the rust in the bottom of the float bowls and it's turned into a dust... going to be fun time cleaning them up! :eusa_dance:
 

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Isn't that the truth, the curse and a blessing at the same time. I figured out what the issue was now. Rust in the tank and it's gotten into the carbs and caused issues! Coated everything. I knew when I opened up the drain screws on two carbs and nothing came out that I was in for a tear down. I was going to start off with the shotgun etc... but it's just been my luck with carbs that there's junk in the float bowls when I buy something! I opend up a YFZ450 carb and there was like a coating of dirt in the bottom of the float bowl!

I did lose one piece, one of the little c-clips for the throttle linkage flew to the side of my work space and I'll probably never find it so I'll have to order a new one but I'm buying new seals and the such anyways so not such a a big deal.

Here's a picture of my fun! LOL You can see the rust in the bottom of the float bowls and it's turned into a dust... going to be fun time cleaning them up! :eusa_dance:

Sean should be able to get you everything you need for them. DO NOT buy non-oem parts for them. They're JUNK!

Chris
 
Shoot him an email at [email protected], his phone # is on his website, morleysmuscle.com

Great guy to deal with, and can answer any Vmax related question you may have.

+1 on only use OEM parts. Not worth the hassle to save a couple bucks and have problems down the road.

An ultrasonic dip tank would be just the ticket for you, unfortunately they're quite expensive and not a lot of places have them. I have used the small jewelery cleaners filled with a mix of water and cleaner(spray nine, purple power, whatever) on small carbs with good luck.
 
Hey RaWarrior... I wasn't able to find his phone number on the site, did I miss it by chance?

I'm needing one of those little C-clips that goes over the shift that holds the linkage on that goes between the two carbs for the throttle for when I took it off it when ding ding ding... don't know where it went and wanted to ask him about that for I can't find it on the parts site I'm on. There always has be one part that happens too with me! :)

I did buy some clutch master cylinder and slave cylinder rebuild kits that weren't OEM. They look pretty good though so I'm going to give them a shot for I couldn't find a 'kit' that was OEM and didn't know which parts to buy. Also wasn't a member on here yet so didn't know to just ask. Oh well, live and learn, will see how well they work for I already got them so might as well try them.
 
So it's not there....seem to remember that's where I got it.

He replies to emails pretty quick, often the same day, so just use that method then.
 
So it's not there....seem to remember that's where I got it.

He replies to emails pretty quick, often the same day, so just use that method then.

Okay, I'm going to do an inspection tonight to figure out which parts I need to replace.
 
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