Carb Cleaning question

[Agemax]

You mean you're going to use them as is?

i wouldnt use them. who knows what is lurking in all those tiny orifices

[Octain]

Is the carb dip fresh?

[craywm]

No i am going to sand off the oxidation and polish it nice. maybe put polish on it and wash it off with gas. im going to lowes right now to see it i can find a wire brush for my drill to speed up the process as well as sand paper and aluminum polish! DONT WANT TO MESS WITH ACID!! they are in Berrymans dip btw from autozone! no more varnish! just keeping them submerged to prevent more oxidization! any suggestions let me know! ill have my phone with me so ill check it! Thanks!

[Agemax]

No i am going to sand off the oxidation and polish it nice. maybe put polish on it and wash it off with gas. im going to lowes right now to see it i can find a wire brush for my drill to speed up the process as well as sand paper and aluminum polish! ans dip btw from autozone! no more varnish! just keeping them submerged to pDONT WANT TO MESS WITH ACID!! they are in Berrymrevent more oxidization! any suggestions let me know! ill have my phone with me so ill check it! Thanks!

who mentioned anything about acid?

[craywm]

Well thats what alot of the cleaners are for oxidized aluminum. Do you know of any that arent acid?

[themess]

Stay away from acid. It won't remove oxidation; it will oxidize the aluminum more.

IMHO, I would not attempt to use those carburetor bodies.
>The outsides only need to be clean for appearance's sake.
>The insides of the bowls only need to be clean enough so that crud won't get dissolve into gasoline, or break loose and plug up orifices.
>Some surfaces need to be clean to seal properly, or so that parts can move against each other smoothly. The crud you have can probably be removed by careful buffing and scraping, to meet those requirement.
>But the internal orifices are probably in the same condition. Those are involved in metering gas and air. They must be really clean to meter properly. I doubt that it could be done, either through chemistry or through mechanical means.

How do the rest of the parts look? How are the outsides?

[Steve]

I am inclined to agree with themess. You can use a Dremel with a wire wheel or an angled wire cup brush to polish most of the crud off of what you can see, but what about the inside of all those little passages? True, most of the metering comes from the replaceable brass jets, but there are still some places that rely on press-fit clearances which might be compromised by the corrosion.

.

[craywm]

actually the inside passages look great! all the jets and screws were still in and only around the jets were corrodded. i put a precision screw driver into many of the passages and they came out fine! there was only varnish on them and that has to be cleaned by now by the berrymans carb dip. ive been blowing them out as well. they seem fine. i was going to get a wire brush drill bit and slowely brush away the oxidation from the inner orphices in the float chamber. BTW the bowl of the carb had NO oxidation on it. weird huh? and suggestions on cleaning and polishing the float chamber?

[craywm]

the outside looks totally normal and all the jets and needles and screws are in great condition. i am only using the bodies though. i have replacement inner parts for these carbs.

[themess]

It might be worth a try then.

[craywm]

Yeah ill try it out. see if i have any problems. i have tons of replacement jets if needed!

[don]

Find a blasting shop that has soda, dry ice, sand, whatever, to knock off all the big visible stuff, then find a bike shop, auto shop, bike dealer, whatever, that has an ultrasonic tub. I guarantee you will have NO issues after that. I have done several carbs that looked like they were literally dug out of a dried up swamp and used the method/s above. They came out real nice and worked the first try. Those ultrasonic cleaners get anything that might be in the pilot tube, air inlet passages, etc. They work!

Just my experience. Hope it helps.

P.S.
The pic in my avatar is one set of those "swamp" carbs.

[craywm]

Can i use electrolysis like some people do with rusted out tanks? or is aluminum oxcide unable to be removed in this manor?

[Steve]

actually the inside passages look great! ... they seem fine. ...

All I can say is "good luck".

Many of the passages in question are in places where they can NOT be seen, neither can you poke anything through them, due to the complex turns that are the result of multiple machining processes. One such passage is the one that feeds the idle mixture to the adjustment screw and the other two ports through which it flows. That passage runs through the middle of the carb virtually its entire length.

This picture was edited some time ago to highlight the rubber plug that covers the pilot fuel jet, but serves to show the passage I am talking about. Above the rubber plug and the pilot fuel jet is the passage that goes up, then turns forward, then down, then forward again, angling slightly upward past the transition ports, toward the idle mixture adjustment screw.


Please tell me how you inspected that passage. There is no way to poke anything through there. Your only hope is to spray carb cleaner and compressed air through there, but unless you have a flow meter attached, you don't know if the passage is slightly blocked or not.



I do not know if electrolysis is possible on aluminum. All stories I have seen about it have been with iron oxide, not aluminum oxide.
I don't know if there might be a different sacrificial anode that would do the job, but the concept is intriguing.

.

[7981GS]

You can't find a better set of carbs to start with?

For the smallest orifices, try various sizes of fishing line to clean them.

Daniel