Topic: Carb Overhaul Site

[Bryan Boyle]

Found this site whilst browsing during lunch: www.motorcyclecarbs.com

Yeah, I know, probably a few heard of it.

But..sent him an email after making phone contact with them about a rack o carbs I picked up off
the bay, including photos of what was a pretty dirty set of squirters.

Didn't even blink an eye.  Complete o/h including ultrasonic cleaning, polishing, overhaul of all o-rings, needles,
etc with keihin parts comes to 100 per.  Again, that's with OEM (non keyster...although to tell the truth, their
kit worked fine on my CA77 dream...) parts. 

Considering the time, effort, and whatnot, that's not a bad price, in my estimation. 

YMMV.  Sometimes, you gotta go to the experts.  The time you save may offset the out of pocket...

[dusterdude]

bryan,is that 100.00 per carb or for the whole rack of carbs

[Bob Wessner]

That was my question also. I have to believe it is per carb (i.e. $400 per rack?!), I don't find that very good, you still have to twiddle them yourself when you get them back, that seems to be the most time consuming.

[dusterdude]

bob,i agree,if i was gonna spend that kind of money on carbs,id buy the twin mikuni setup.

[pmpski_1]

400 dollars for a set of carbs? No way. Never.  For that amount of money they would need to come to my bike, put them on, and do all of the adjustments while an assistant fans me and feeds me beer. Then again, maybe I'm just a cheap bastage.

[Vatch]

$400 bucks can get you a whole other  SOHC!

[Tim.]

Just to play the other side of the argument (as is my habit to do, regardless of my personal position on a topic), consider the costs involved.

Keyster kits are $20 / carb.  This service (according to the poster) includes all new Keihin parts.  I know a needle/seat kit from Honda is $40 / carb.  So, assuming all new Keihin parts (jets, gaskets, needle, seats etc.) would run an easy $50 / carb, we're then talking about $200 for the labour involved in a full restoration/rebuild of the carbs.  When you consider the time involved, $200 isn't that bad.

Now, to be honest, I don't think the service described is accurate.  I checked out their site, and the price is $100 / carb body PLUS REQUIRED PARTS.  It's not terribly clear whether new jets/needles etc. are included  This is their description:

PROFESSIONAL CARBURETOR RESTORATION:

Complete diagnostic disassembly. Ultrasonic cleaning of all parts and bodies. Polishing of all aluminum and brass parts to like new. Each part is inspected for wear. Service comes guaranteed against defective workmanship, and oversight of complete repair. See list below for more details. Does not warranty against problems other than the carbs themselves, but we will offer tech support after the service to find those other problems.

Services provided, and problems normally found that are not found in standard cleaning include:

A guaranteed solution. Includes tech support after installation by phone or email. Guaranteed against defects in workmanship.

All new orings installed throughout.

Butterfly shaft seal replacement (common cause of vacuum leaks, or sticky throttle response).

Polishing of all surfaces to bring your carbs back to a like new finish. (no discount for passing on polishing service).
All new float bowl, rack mounting, and cover screws in the appropriate type and color as new.

New e-clips.

Repainting of the carb bodies as appropriate (if needed) to duplicate the original finish for models like Midnight Specials, GPZ's, Black carb'ed GS's, etc. The finish is a satin finish epoxy paint.

Zinc and chroming service available. Note: Some Dellorto carbs are yellow zinc plated. Replating may be necessary and require addition fees. (Zinc plating per color [clear, yellow, black] is $150 per job, so send all your parts to be plated together).

Worn Mikuni molded rubber fuel tees. (These tees often crack, loose dimensional stability etc and need replacement to keep from leaking.
Deteriorated throttle slide diaphragm.

Failed floats.

Broken pilot screws.

Worn needle jets, & jet needles.

Broken or frozen bolt repair.

Jets plugged solid that cannot be cleaned with the ultrasonic cleaner.

[pmpski_1]

Oh, I'm not saying that the price is too much for what they do. Parts and labor, sure. We all know how much time you can end up spending on carbs. Some people will go out and plunk down 40k for a custom built bike. Some will build it themselves. I'd just rather spend 400 bucks somewhere else.

[Bryan Boyle]

agree with all of you... 

Right now, though, don't have a good place I can strip the carbs down since I sold my house
back in january...and doing it in the parking lot of the apartment complex I'm in...well...with
all those fiddley parts...

Just a thought...

[mrbreeze]

I just got my K&L kits yesterday from Dennis Kirk.#110 mains but I am going to run 120's .... Needles look the same as Honda originals....Mine were set at bottom notch....I am thinking about going with 2nd from bottom....(75 K model K&N pods 4to1 Kerker - no baffle... low altitude) Any feedback on any of this? I will bench sync with the drill bit method and then do a carb tune later.

[pmpski_1]

bdboyle - Your kitchen counter will do I hear ya though. Got a buddy that will let you borrow a garage for a bit?

[Bryan Boyle]

I wish...could do it down the airport in the maint. hangar, but, mixing parts between
2 wheels and 2 wings is a bit problematic...not that I can't, but, don't want to run afoul
of the airport owner (I have my airframe and powerplant certs, btw, so, it's not a case
of not knowing how...).

Looking at a 3 stall garage right now..oh, yeah, there' s a house attached, too, but, that's
for the distaff side to worry about...

[mrbreeze]

If you don't have a decent place to rebuild carbs,it might be worth having someone else do them because it is time consuming and you need acsess to compressed air,carb dip, a clean unobstructed bench,etc. but like someone already posted....you still have to dial everything in and if you run into a problem,they will more than likely want to charge you more to work it out.I just did mine this past week....first time in my life I ever did anything with multible carbs.As soon as I got my kits, I took mine apart and took one carb apart each day and took it to work (I work at a transmission shop). I brought my own can of Berrymans carb dip and put the parts in first thing in the morning. As I worked, I swished the can around every half hour or so and then at lunchtime I took it out of the dip, washed it off, blew it off with the air gun being real concerned with all the small airways and then put all contents in a plastic coffee can. When I got home at night I put that carb together and tore down the next one and so on. Last night, I put the rack together,installed it, and started it up. No leaks(YEAH!!) but have a bit of popping. They still need to be synched but is that $400 guy going to do that for you? Hell no! My bike will run fine but I wouldn't spend my $ having the carbs built.... I might spend a little having it dialed in by someone that I felt could do the job properly.I am going to buy the Morgan Carb Tune because everyone on this site is raving about it. I am just jazzed that it is acually holding an idle now.

[Badboy]

I have just read all the posts for this subject. Let me ramble a little. I came into possesion of my CB500 about seven years ago. It was in a lot better shape than it is at the moment[due to sitting around]. The reason it set around iis because I could never get it to run just right. I am an auto machanic and I like to have things run just so,as to the cycle,they told me that the po rebuilt the carbs,maybe he did,but by the time that I got it they needed to be cleaned ,etc.  I have dealt with multible carbs on autos before,never had the problem with them,cause they [the ones that I have seen have a bypass for low speed]and it is not to hard to get them running together right. Due to the new jungle that I found myself in on this cycle [did not have the info as to what it needed for jets etc.],I just thought that it had the right ones. I still think they put in the wrong slide needles. At any rate,looking back,I am wondering if it would have been cheaper in the long run to send them to someone like motorcyclecarbs.com to start with. Look at all the time I have spent on this problem and it still is not fixed[waiting for parts]. By the way,I mentioned that autos had a pypass for low speed,one only needed to set the throtle plates all the same and they seemed to work okay. I suppose that if you were involved in racing they do have means to calibrate them very close at all speeds. This begs the question,why not keep it a little more simple? Of course just look at what I have learned from this trip!