Topic: reasonable cost for carb strip, clean & balance?

[birdy]

There is a limit to my 'tinkering' and I know this job is beyond me.
Bearing in mind this is UK price, a local garage who have experience even in bikes pre 1940, reckon £150 - £200 (about $225-$300) without parts.
Sound about right for the work involved?

[kajtek]

i would imagine about 3-4 hrs would be involved so sounds about right.. although... i would suggest its not as hard as you may expect.

(depending on the state of your carbs) you may not have to remove them from the mounting plate, then its really just a case of taking off the float bowls and carb top cover bit, removing jets n bits (very easy) purchase some simple green or similar, leave them to soak for an hour, scrape with a tooth brush or similar until clean, then rinse thoroughly and put back together. as long as you have the good carb kits it should be fine, i used brasso n fine wire wool to clean all the internal brass bits and used a rubber hose and a powerful blow from my lungs to clear the water out of any tubes.

before all this my bike ran like crap, now it starts easy, runs great and doesnt leak any fuel! 

ashley

[andy750]

I agree with kajtek to try it yourself first. Saying that, I paid a local enthusiast (of British bikes) in Oxfordshire to do mine at the same time he was doing my top end - £100 in 2003 and I supplied parts (from David Silver Spares).

Since then Ive had a go myself and as long as your careful its not too bad.

[captaincrash80]

+1 on trying it yourself. I was quite apprehensive about doing it the first time I tried but it turned out to be alot easier than I had expected. I'm sure that if you have any questions about the process that we'll be able to point you in the right direction.

[birdy]

Thanks, but for tricky jobs, I tend to make things worse!

[shorterdanny]

try it yourself....i had never done anything very involved before trying mine..

even if you only take them off and check the insulators and remove the float bowls, really not that bad..all you need is a manual...

you'll be happy you did.

CRS the carb specialist quote £300 for a overhaul not including parts, so £150-200 sounds pretty good. but better that be in your pocket for a beer!!!!!

[shorterdanny]

And if you make it worse you've lost nothing, as you would have to take them off for the garage anyway!!!

[westondc]

i think a friend of my paid about $300 for a carb clean and sync here in the states. i recommend picking up a shop manual and taking a stab at it yourself. it's not as difficult as you might think. when i tackled my CB500 carbs for the first time i was done and it was running in about 4 hours. pickup a carb sync tool from ebay for $40 and a can of carb dip or carb/jet spray. remember, you always have the friendly people on SOHC4 to help you out if you run into troubles. if you going to own and maintain a classic honda, you might was well learn these things and save yourself lots of $$ in the long run. just my $.02

[captaincrash80]

I know that a local shop here in KC wants $150 for an ultrasonic bath, doesn't include parts.

[vorhese]

Rebuilding your first carb will instill a lot of confidence in a first time mechanic. They seem like black magic, but they're hard to screw up. Just put it back together right.

[wdhewson]

The amount of work rebuilding these carb quartets is very high.  And a lot of it is knowledge based work. 

If all new parts are installed (all jets, floats, valves, gaskets), then the old ones don't have to be laboriously cleaned.  All this considered, about 300$ plus parts would be my price to refurbish the carbs.  And parts might approach 200$.  Postage, packaging and delays for receiving parts can wipe out half a riding season. 

So overall, you self-train, self-educate, and self-execute to put these carbs right, or pay pretty big bucks to an experienced expert.  The good news is that 100$ ain't much money any more.

[cookindaddy]

+1 for the comments about trying to do it yourself.

Having done it myself for the first time recently on two different carb sets, I must add that it is difficult to say exactly what you will run into and the comments about "easy, done in a few hours" should be taken with a few grains of salt, particularly if you are new to it.

Get a good manual, study the threads here and proceed carefully step by step.

Be organized, disassemble slowly and carefully and use lots of baggies to organize the bits.

I am sure also, after my experience, that a true pro would probably not quote a fixed price, for the same reason, that all carbs have not had the same history and are unlikely to be in the same condition.

Good luck though, you can do it!

[birdy]

Thanks for the info everyone.
Not sure if the price I was quoted included taking them off & reinstalling - if not then you're right, I'll have a go before I give to a garage.

[swellguy]

Of course I'd encourage you to do it yourself . . .
but if not there are a number of guys on eBay who offer the service, including the cost of rebuild kits, for around $225 and have plenty of positive feedback. I know you're in the UK but maybe someone there does the same thing for about the same price.

[westondc]

i think i'm going to quit my day job and start cleaning carbs for $100 an hour!

[Operator]

I consider myself lucky at this point. I just had a carb tear down, clean, reassembly, and balancing. New rubbers between the carbs and airbox and carb to intake.  Valve clearance adjustment. cam chain check(to make sure the adjuster is doing it's job). points and timing adjustment. checked the spark plug wires, clean and check spark plugs and gaps, and fixed the short in my electric start.

Final price $375.00 cdn  Incl parts

My mechanic rocks

[traveler]

About 40 bucks per carb here in Rapid City.  (not including parts)

~Joe