Today I had a glimpse into the future. This is how I picture my retirement- sitting at the breakfast table scrubbing vintage motorcycle parts, while cooking shows on the Food Network play in the background. What more could I want?
Finally I'm done with all the scrubbing and polishing. I would say that each carburetor took about six hours of labor. The carbs look good as new!
It was a task that obviously had to get done, not only for the sake of their ungodly appearances, but to clean out all that crap that's been sitting on the insides for the past ten plus years. The last time I ever tinkered with them, I had close to no mechanical experience with motorcycles, so when I had jetting problems, I turned to the "professionals", taking the bike to small two-stroke shops. Well, I found all sorts of little parts missing like washers and a spring.
Lots of parts needed attention. The slide in the left carb was frozen in place- gunk had solidified and glued it into place. Both needle jets needed to get popped out- there was so much corrosion and grit in the emulsion tubes- the jets are wasted. The air jets were caked with solid gunk, like barnacles on to a rock. The corrosion was so bad in the left carb float assembly that it had eaten away a good portion of the main jet support. I'm ordering new o-rings and gaskets as well as a spring for both carburetors.
Here are some before and after pictures of the carbs. My method of cleaning them 1) soak and scrub them in a cocktail of kerosene and carb cleaner 2) scrub them with Barkeepers Friend then 3) polish the parts with Never-Dull. Hence six hours per carb.
Very nice looking carbs. The difference is amazing from where they started. Did you have any problems finding the Mikuni parts?
ReplyDeleteWasn't really all that difficult. Babbitts still has a lot of parts available. Some of the parts are more accessible than others, so shop around- you might find some parts cheaper with other sellers.
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