Pulled the carbs off the 81 850G today.

[Nessism]

Make sure you have a screwdriver that tightly fits the slot of the pilot jet or you will strip them out. Heat and PB Blaster is good.

I don't understand why anyone would use anything other than carb dip to clean the parts. The formulas are created by chemists for a specific purpose, and they work well. Dish washing liquid and Pine Sol are for the kitchen, not the garage.

 

[jdvorchak]

Can you suggest a good carb dip? Last time I bought one it was next to worthless. I think that was B12 from autozone but don't really remember. That was probably 20 years ago. Haven't been able to get the good stuff since the 1970's. Loved that smell and it would clean a carb in a couple of hours.

 

[Guest]

Barrymans....

 

[cowboyup3371]

In the gallon can with the basket

 

[Datsa Noydb]

And ignore the directions.

The directions say to dip "for 15 to 30 minutes". With the reduced-strength formula for the solvents, we have found that "15 to 30 HOURS" is more appropriate and will not damage any of the metallic parts of your carbs.

 

[Nessism]

Some guys dip for 24 hours but I recommend dipping the minimum time necessary to get the carbs clean, typically over night. I've seen carb bodies turn dark from extended dip times and that's something to be avoided. Berrymans dip is decent enough, although it's no where the same as it used to be. My favorite carb dip from days gone past was made by Mckays. That stuff was nasty. Worked great!

 

[jdvorchak]

Just went and bought some Berrymans chem-dip. Got some parts soaking now.

 

[mikerophone]

Cool. Make sure you only go OEM Mikuni on replacements.

I bought the $80 Harbor Freight Ultrasonic cleaner a few years ago and I'll dip in the can/basket for ~24 hours condition depending, rinse, then hit them for 15-20 minutes in the heated ultrasonic cleaner filled with Simple Green HD (I've used Pinesol as well but prefer the HD) and 2 carb bodies barely fit at a time and I rotate them when the timer stops, I place the jets, choke components, springs, valve and seats all in a small mason jar with carb cleaner in the jar and it cleans them right up. Like I said I had a set that sat for 23 years and they were plugged solid. The berrymans softened the crud and the ultrasonic blasted them open. I still follow through with wire or a safety pin and make sure I can see light through the openings, then I reassemble squirt carb cleaner in the jets then follow up with a fins blast of compressed air.

Make sure you lightly oil the o-rings when you assemble them, that way they don't bind up or get pinched.

 

[jdvorchak]

Thanks for the reminder about OEM parts. There are times to go cheap with aftermarket but inside a carb is not one of those times. I would never consider aftermarket unless there was no way to get the OEM part.

 

[mikerophone]

100% agree, I'll buy aftermarket parts for a lot of things but this is one area I wouldn't.

Keep us posts on your progress - and post more pics if you can. We love pics!

 

[sinkankan]

Some photos of my carbs on the 1981 GS850 after they were rebuilt. Had some bling applied becuase I couldn't rationlize putting back on the cruddy spreader bars so I got them chromed. One thing I always had problems with was trying to get the front clamps to hold the carbies and stop any small air leaks, in the end I used radiator clamps for a positive clamp. Hope these inspire.

 

[jdvorchak]

Those look really nice. I pulled the 1st carb out of the chem-dip after about 7 hours and it's clean but not new looking like yours. Put the second one in and letting it soak overnight. I'll post some pics of before and after but frankly I'm more concerned with how they run rather than how they look. I'm not doing a resto just getting the bike safe and reliable to ride. I may take some time to polish the CV caps so they look pretty. I can only put one carb in the dip at a time. I still have plenty to do while the carbs are soaking. Working on the air cleaner now. I have to replace the foam seal on the air filter frame and probably should post pics of that. I just use weather strip foam like you get at the hardware store.
Plenty of other stuff like lube throttle and clutch cables, speedo and tach cables and the brakes. Rear brake works while front MC is empty and dirty. etc etc.. the list goes on. Basically all of the maintenance that should have been done over the past dozen years.

 

[sinkankan]

They were vapour blasted, but unfortunately the guy didn't flush them before he reassembld them. Had a lot of drama afterwards pulling them apart again and blowing out soda ash. They come up looking shiney and new afterwards because it take all the surface grud off, both inside and out. I buffed the diaprahm caps quickly on the bench grinder, took about twenty minutes each one.
And like yourself I did th brakes while I was waiting, that turned into another drama because all the calipers were seized, the master cylinder for the rear was a dead loss and ended up in the bin. The front were seized with rust and moisture and I got a new right hand one, and refurbished the left one.

 

[jdvorchak]

Sinkankan bike looks really good. I never seem to have the fortitude to do a frame off resto like yours. I clean up frame parts etc as I'm working on the bike so at least I don't get all funky just touching it. Ok I'm done in the house. Going out to the garage to work on the bike. When I finish with this one I have a 1980 GS850L waiting in line to get running. Unless someone buys the L it it's present state for cheap.

 

[jdvorchak]

here is kinda before and after: The cleaned carb is the first on the left in the original picture.

Original:


After about 7 hours of chem-dip;

 

[Guest]

how come you didn't take out the pilot jet, the main jet and it's tube and the float seat?

 

[jdvorchak]

I did. I took the picture after I put all that back in. They were completely stripped down to the bare carb body and all jets, seats etc pulled for soaking. Wouldn't do much good to leave all of that in there for the dip...

 

[jdvorchak]

With just a few minutes of first clean with 0000 steel wool and some Mothers Metal Polish and I'm pleased with the way the caps and bowls turned out.



Before:

 

[mikerophone]

Looking good - let's see if you can get the bodies that clean! Love the Mothers, and Chuck Hahn here turned me on to something even better to finish it off - Wizards Power Seal, it creates a molecular acrylic barrier to keep that polish looking great.

 

[jdvorchak]

Oh one more observation. I pulled the insulators off to change the O-rings and to my surprise they were still pliable, round and still standing proud of the surface. I changed them anyway because I had the new ones.

I saw another discussion on the forum about how often to change those O-rings and the popular conscientious was about 10 years. I don't know how long this one has set before I bought it. I was estimating 10 to 12 years.

Another observation. I thought maybe someone had rebuilt these carbs then didn't ride it much and let it sit. Well everyone of the floats were the same setting but it was incorrect. They had 22.4 mm from the gasket base to the flat part of the float. I had to bend the hell out of the tabs to get them back to correct. Now they way they were set the fuel level would have way too high. Probably running a little rich too.