Topic: how many times does it take to clean your carbs so you can ride?

[trueblue]

...Dave, it's probably 'cuz everybody on here keeps trying to use all this weird stuff that wasn't designed for carb cleaning to clean their carbs, like simple green(an excellent degreaser, haven't seen too many carbs full of grease), pinesol(that stuff barely does anything to my kitchen sink), lemon juice?...etc.  yeah, maybe that stuff will work, but if you go to an auto parts store, they have this stuff called "CARBURETOR CLEANER"...

I don't use carb cleaner, I use acetone, it breaks down the varnish in nothing flat, IMO it is better than carb cleaner.  The only benefit of carb cleaner over acetone is it comes in a nice little aerosol can.

[TwoTired]

How many times does it take to clean the carbs? Zero for me . I use sea foam with every tank.

I used seafoam after cleaning the carbs, and the carbs gummed up anyway. Ethanol gas.

[Bailgang]

How many times does it take to clean the carbs? Zero for me . I use sea foam with every tank.

I used seafoam after cleaning the carbs, and the carbs gummed up anyway. Ethanol gas.

My carbs had sat for 25+ years before I got my hands on them and I just don't see how seafoam would've made a bit of diff even if the PO had used a whole can of it in the tank before parking the bike for that length of time.

[bjatwood]

My bike sat for 28 years before I bought it. The PO had the bike running with a carb "clean" but I didn't like the way it was running. So I tore them apart to find out
a float was heavy with fuel. So, I guess it would be 2 times of cleaning.

[madmtnmotors]

Exactly three...








and then one stick of dynamite!     

[CB500_k2]

If you take your time and blow out all the little ports with compressed air and take everything apart then one cleaning should be enough.  Since I was new to CBs when I started it took me a couple of times to get the job done.  The trick is just cleaning everything and taking the carbs completely apart.

[ekpent]

The stuff in aerosol cans is not really carb cleaner if you know what I mean , but it is good for blowing out passages,cleaning other parts and souping up a bonfire  Lacquer thinner is great on varnish and oil etc also,save the pop for the cocktails though I have read some threads about that. The carb dunk we get now though in the large dip cans is nothing like it was back in the day either but we have to be friendly to the earth     The good stuff back then would make you feel the pain if you went barehanded or melt your stuff if you forgot about it in the tank for a few days. 

[BeSeeingYou]

This carb cleaning fetish always seems like a bit of self inflicted S & M to me.  With my 79 XS650 I have never removed and dismantled the carbs in 32 years .  Taken the bowls in place off a few times for cleaning.  I will do it this summer for the first time as I plan on replacing the mounting boots.   The CB 750F I have never removed and dismantled the carbs.  Took the bowls off once to clean them and check the jets.   Found one idle jet plugged.  Have not touched them since.  My 75 XS650 I did remove and dismantle the carbs but only because I had dismantled the entire bike.  It ran fine.  I am I blessed by the carb fairies?  Not sure what I am doing right.

[ekpent]

Think you have been Lucky Srust. Most old neglected machines I get its just automatic to pull the carbs,clean and check them out along with the oil change and other major tune-up procedures before I hit the start button and bring them back to life again. Been lucky a couple times though and actually bought a good runner I could just ride.    Once you own them for awhile you know them though.

[harisuluv]

Srust you have been blessed by the carb fairies indeed.  I think a lot of people get bikes that were inoperable without a cleaning, or were missing the carbs in the first place and needed to buy a set second hand. 

If you look at my thread in my sig you will see some horrific carbs that were never ever going to be functional ever again unless they were thoroughly rebuilt.  We're talking about floats that are stuck, laquer in every passageway.  Lacquer in the bowls, different stages of lacquer, corrosion, stuck slides, spider webs, you name it.

If you get a running bike and can just maintain the carbs that's ideal but since these bikes are 40 + years old that's not always possible. 

[750K]

Once if you do it right.

You're just a special kinda guy 

That's what my mom used to tell me, haha.

I had the joy of cleaning my wife's cb400t carbs, the friend I bought the bike from let it sit outside with half a tank of gas and the petcock on for almost two years. They were a #$%*ing mess to say the least, after getting them off the bike I was determined to only do it once. I soaked the rack in carb cleaner for a day or two, rotating them and blowing them out each day in the solution. The jets and needles etc were in my ultra sonic in a cup of simple green then carb cleaner, new gaskets and o rings as well as excelerator pump diaphragm . Put it back on and it ran like a champ, only had to clean it once. Be thorough and do it right and you only have to do it one time.

[brewsky]

When I bought my new 1967 Superhawk, it would not start at the Honda dealer.

The owner was the only one there and after a couple minutes if cussing etc.. he removed the bowls and jets, sprayed some cleaner and compressed air thru, and it fired right up.

He said he thought they drug the crates across the ocean behind the ships with a rope!

Not this bad though: