[Advise Needed] Best way to treat the carburetor into its original finish

[joshes]

Hi guys,

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who had contributed to my first thread - which asked for engined covers finish. There are so many useful information. I am amazed and thankful for having you guys!

Now, this is the continuance of my quest to restore my 1977 GS750 to its original finish.

Next are the carburetors. They are mechanically sound - just dirty. The choke lever started to show a 'rusty' colour.

I would like to clean it and treat it to get this back into the original finish - but I do not want to completely rebuild the carb.

Can anyone give me advise for doing this? Again, thank you so much for any information given!

Josh

[tkent02]

That choke lever is steel, electrolysis will have it looking brand new in no time.

The carb bodies, dip them to get the crud out, they need to be cleaned anyway.

If you are not a stickler for originality, paint them.

[Steve]

... - but I do not want to completely rebuild the carb.

Why not?

It's very nice for a bike to look nice, but it's even better when it runs nice, too.

While you have the carbs off for cosmetic reasons, it's not that much harder to give them a good internal cleaning, too.

.

[joshes]

If my carbs run perfectly well - should I (still) have to take them apart and put together back or just clean them with some kind of solvent liquid cleaner?

Any thoughts on this?

[tkent02]

take it apart, do it right.
It will be a rocket.

[Nessism]

To restore the carbs on my 1000S I took them apart, soaked the bodies in carb dip, bead blasted the bodies, polished the top caps and replated most of the hardware and installed new screws. The guys emploring you to rebuild the carbs are right in saying it's never a waste of time since the various O-rings inside the carbs are sure to be hard and brittle and refreshing them assures they will seal effectively for the next 20 years.

[joshes]

Beautiful works you have done to those carbs! Ace! makes me want to do it now! I guess I have to be patience in looking for carbs rebuild kit. Nice one!

[Nessism]

Beautiful works you have done to those carbs! Ace! makes me want to do it now! I guess I have to be patience in looking for carbs rebuild kit. Nice one!

Rebuild kit at cycleorings.com

[reddirtrider]

Very nice lookin carbs there Ed!

Everyone is giving good advice. You'll NEED to rebuild when you clean them up. Notice the caps.

[sschering]

any opinions on baking soda blasting the carb bodies?

[tkent02]

any opinions on baking soda blasting the carb bodies?

Let us know how it turns out.

[reddirtrider]

any opinions on baking soda blasting the carb bodies?

I soda blasted the GS750ES motor while it was out of the bike after I cleaned it with a power washer. I plugged and taped all the holes/seals and let 'er rip. It worked fine. It's less abrasive than beads and if you get a little inside the motor, there's not going to be the issues you'd have with beads.

I now have sand, beads, and soda for the blast cabinet to work with - although I used the soda outside of the cabinet in the drive. I think it would work fine on the carbs, maybe even better than the beads.

[Nessism]

I've never used soda before but it sounds like the proper stuff to use. Regardless of whether you use soda or beads, the plating will get stripped off the steel parts so take precautions.

[81gs1100]

any opinions on baking soda blasting the carb bodies?

Soda blasting will be the least to damage any carb or parts. The only downfall of soda blasting is if you plan to paint the carb bodies afterwards the residue from the soda is a pain to clean off completly. We soda blased some car bodies and took a lot of time prepping it for paint.

Soda blasting actully emplodeds backwards off the part bringing the coating with it. Just watch the pH levels during cleanup as it will kill the grass and living plants.

[81gs1100]

I've never used soda before but it sounds like the proper stuff to use. Regardless of whether you use soda or beads, the plating will get stripped off the steel parts so take precautions.

Im not quite sure the soda will remove any zink plating tho... We used soda to strip paint off of chrome bumpers and the chrome trim around the windshield, it polished it real nice. Soda is a very delicate coatings removal, it can be adjusted to remove spray paint off of a painted surface without harming the original paint.