Topic: Ultrasonic Carb Cleaning

[Tom.Walsh]

Hi guys.  I'm extremely new here but I just picked up a 78 750k with the carbs all gummed up and dirty.  My pilot jets are clogged and it seems the only option is to send them to a shop to have them cleaned.  Of the few shops I have called the estimates have been around 500$.  Seems like a rip off to me so I have been looking into purchasing an Ultrasonic cleaner and just doing it myself.  I was kind of curious if you guys would be interested in sending your carbs to me to be cleaned instead of letting the shops charge something outrageous like that.  Anyways let me know.  Thanks

Great site by the way.  I've been looking around alot.

[mlinder]

You can soak them in simple green, then use some spray carb cleaner, and a bit of copper wire to get them cleaned out. Total cost, about 11 bucks, overnight soaking, and maybe 40 minutes of work.

[my78k]

I agree with Mlinder (never thought I would say that!)

For me I would rather just give em a go with the carb cleaner. It only takes a few hours and beats laying out the coin and having to wait to get them done.

Dennis

[Alan F.]

$500 seems pretty steep, but it's probably better business practice than telling you to get lost.

Ultrasonic cleaning will certainly do the trick, but there are many other methods that all work to a fair degree, boiling in lemon juice, sitting in cola overnight, there are many others just run a search.  For the cost of an ultrasonic cleaner large enough to hold a single carb body, you could clean your carbs a hundred times with one of the simple methods.

Just my .02

-A

[mlinder]

I agree with Mlinder (never thought I would say that!)

For me I would rather just give em a go with the carb cleaner. It only takes a few hours and beats laying out the coin and having to wait to get them done.

Dennis

Woah, what? I don't remember having disagreements with you.. could be I've forgotten, though, you know, brain damage...

/edit: On that note, you can send em to me, and I'll do em.. only 400 bucks! Man, you save 100 bucks over those other guys!

[Tom.Walsh]

I tried cleaning it out with a little bit of wire but i still have the same symptoms.  Which one is the pilot? Maybe i cleaned out the wrong one?

[mlinder]

There's a carb cleaning FAQ. I would recommend reading it. It may seem slightly daunting at first, but if you do it now, you can do it again, whereas if you send it away right now, you'll ahve to send it away again if anything ever happens.
Just be careful and thorough.
Lemme see if I can find the link, will post back here soon as I do.

[mlinder]

Bah, can't find it.
In any case, EVERYTHING has to be cleaned. Pilot jets, main jets, everything. No blockage or gunk or anything anywhere in the carbs.

[my78k]

Sorry Mark, didn't mean it that way! Meant entirely tongue in cheek...you do have a Pirate Fetish after all...lol

Dennis

[mlinder]

Arrrrrrrgh!

[RichPugh]

Man... I cant believe your local shop(s) quoted $300!!!??? I took my carbs (all jets, floats, pins, seats, etc. removed but still all assembled) to my local cycle salvage place (Baltimore Cycle Salvage) and he ran the assembly through his ultrasonic cleaner 3 or 4 times, hand brushed/wiped the stuff that didnt simply fall off in the cleaner, blew all the passages clean with carb cleaner just in case any debris got stuck and handed them back to me in a couple days for $25. I then "rebuilt" them with 4 new K&L stock rebuild kits ($24 each), set the floats to 22mm, popped the bowls back on, set the mixture screws to 1-1/4 turns out, tossed them on the bike and it's a whole new beast.

If you sent them assembled to Baltimore Cycle Salvage, he's probably ultrasonic clean them and rebuild them and sync them for less than $300 Well... probably not replace jets on a 78 but definitely clean them LOL and replace gaskets, etc.

[Chippy569]

After seeing my gas tank and 1 of the floats, I decided it would be better for me to spend the money and take it to a shop. They're cleaning and rebuilding my 74 550 for $300 or so.

My bike had gasoline in it for 22 years. Which really means everything has about a .5mm layer of straight varnish on it. I had to use some paint stripper on the gas tank just so i could start cleaning the rust, LOL.

[Achmed]

$25? That's crazy. Hard to believe he cleaned out all the passageways but I don't know much about ultrasonic cleaning. Good on ya!

[patrickd]

Go to Auto Zone and buy a gallon of Berrymans Chem Dip for 20 bucks. Strip them down and soak for 3 hours and then rinse in boiling water. Blow out with compressed air and they will be as clean as they were when new.

[d_soles]

I just had a similar problem.  My carbs had sat with gas in them for 26 years.  All that was left was clogged everything, some nasty, nasty, NASTY (my wife and my buddy will vouch for this) smelling fluid, only a few drops left, and weird crystals and corrossion on the bowls and bodies.  But, not being afraid of carbs (they're really not that complicated at all, nice and easy, just the secret is this:  Don't be afraid!  If another human designed it, you can fix it!  Maybe I'm just conceited....), I decided I'd try out the Simple Green method (available at your local Walmart or Meijer!), I dumped a tub of it into a mop bucket, sat the stripped rack and all of the other carb parts (you at least want to strip the main jet (get those vice grips!), pilot jet, emulsion tube, float valve and float spring thingy, and air screw) in, and then filled the bucket to the top of the rack with hot water.  Let it sit for 3 hours, and you'd be amazed at what Simple Green does, I know I was.  Seemed to work better than a carb dip I have.

It really is a piece of cake.  If you're too afraid to take something apart and get your hands dirty, you've picked the wrong bike to own.  Go buy a brand new Harley, instead. 

Doug

[smpls70]

What a coincidence,the other day some guy told me that he has one of those ultrasonic cleaners,offered  to let me use it.Sounds interesting,im just courious how they work ,would you do a normal carb clean first ,simple green soak,etc,etc, then use the the ultra sonic cleaner?

[miles nowhere]

the ultrasonic basically vibrates the crud off of them to save a ton of scrubbing and can reach places that a brush cant. I do it first.
SMPLS- what is your avatar from?

[WFO]

20 buck for a gallon and it come with a little parts basket.